Captive
by mihane100
Summary: When Pacifica and Gideon are forced to stay at the Mystery Shack for a few weeks, they think their lives are over. Can Dipper and Gideon learn to be roomates and tolerate each other? Will Mabel finally be able to get Pacifica to have a sleepover with her? And why can't the rich girl get Dipper out of her head? Set during winter break and ignoring Northwest Mansion Mystery.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, guys! This is a fanfic I've been planning to write for a while, so I hope you enjoy it. Reviews, favourites and follows are very much appreciated, as it encourages me to write more, so feel free to do those things if you want. :)**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls or any of the characters. Those belong to Disney and Alex Hirsch. The only thing I own is my writing. **_

**Chapter One**

It was a windy afternoon in Gravity Falls and the 'S' of the Mystery Shack had fallen off again. There were no passers by, and the only noise that could be heard from outside was the high-pitched whistle of the wind and an odd growling sound that was probably just their imaginations. Despite this though, the residents of the house were feeling rather cheerful, due to it being a Sunday. The shop wasn't open on Sundays, so they had the whole day off to do whatever they desired. Sure, it meant that Stan wasn't going to make any money today, but there was a _Duchess Approves_ marathon on the TV today, so he couldn't really complain. That was when the doorbell rang. Stan groaned as he got up from his chair to answer it. He would have gotten one of the twins to answer it, but it could have been those government agents again, wanting to 'talk'. If he knew his nephew- and he did- Dipper would just jump at the chance, which he knew as a bad, _bad_ idea. If that boy squealed to the feds, it would ruin everything he had worked for. To his surprise, the person he opened the door to was a rather distraught Wendy, clinging onto her signature hat tightly so that it wouldn't fly away with the wind. Next to her was a blonde girl, around Dipper and Mabel's age. She didn't look happy.

"Whaddaya want, Wendy? It's ya day off!" He bellowed over the roaring weather.

"I need you help, Stan! I've gotta look after this brat." Said 'brat' pouted irritatedly and shivered. It was freezing out here and her hair was getting absolutely wrecked!

"And?" Stan was starting to look annoyed.

"Her parents payed me to babysit her for a few weeks, but she can't meet _my_ family! Are you kidding?"

The old man's eyes widened when he realised what she was implying. "No," he shook his sternly. "Absolutely not."

"C'mon, man!" The teenager persisted, a desperate look on her face. "You've got that spare room in the Mystery Shack, right?" She coughed and spat out some hair that had flown into her mouth . "And I'll give you, like, half of what they pay me when they get back!"

"They payin' you a lot?"

"Oh yeah."

With a sigh, Stan finally nodded. "Fine. But I better get that money."

The teenager grinned at him widely, and walked away. "Thanks, dude! I owe ya one!"

"That's what I'm counting on!" He called back as he watched her walk away.

With another sigh, the man shoved the blonde girl into the shack and shut the door. He didn't like this girl anymore than Dipper or Mabel probably did, but he had no choice. Wendy, despite her laziness, had been working here for years and had also been indirectly looking after the kids for him in his absence, so he supposed he owed her at least this.

Pacifica glared at the man and found herself wandering into the living room. Who did the old coot think he was? And why did that babysitter think she could just _dump her _with these losers like that? Ugh. She was _the_ Pacifica Northwest! He didn't like how the man looked at her. He looked at her like...like… she wasn't important. Like she was just like _Mabel_. Oh god, she didn't still live here, did sh-

"Pacifica? What're you doing here?" The girl's suspicions were officially confirmed by the overly-cheerful voice that had a habit of driving her crazy. It seemed that both twins were sat in a large chair in front of the TV, looking at her rather suspiciously. She groaned. This was _not _going be fun.

"I'm gonna stay here for a while, so you better get used to it, _hon_," was her sharp response. She glared at the other girl.

"And why is that?" Dipper narrowed his eyes and straightened the hat on his head.

"My parents are on… a _business trip_." _Or on holiday without me, anyway. _"Also, your Uncle is getting payed."

As if almost on cue, Stan walked in the room, a freshly brewed cup of coffee in his hand. "I hate to do this to ya, kids," he told them. "But-" The doorbell went off again and he glared at the door accusingly. "Oh jeez, what is it NOW?!" He walked over to open the door again with a grunt, only to find the last person he wanted to have visiting him standing outside.

"Stanford Pines!"

Stan raised an eyebrow. "Bud? Oh crud, look I don't have the painting anymore. I burned it. In Spain. Tomorrow."

The man laughed, though it sounded a little forced. "This 'aint 'bout that. D'ya think you can do an ol' friend a huuuuuge favour? I need someone to look after Gideon for a few weeks."

The older man frowned. "Nope. Next question." He was just about to slam the door in that sorry sucker's face, when he saw how enraged Gideon was.

"I can't believe you were gonna dump me with Stanford! You're damn lucky he said no!"

Stan's face broke into a smile and he flung the door open wider, successfully terrifying both Gleefuls. "Ya know what? SURE! I'll take in your little gremlin!"

Gideon gasped. "W-what?! No you won't!"

Stan laughed maniacally. "Oh, I will! I WILL! HAHA!"

Bud grinned. "Why, thank ya Stanford! I'll pay ya at the end o' the month." He looked over at his son and gave him a bright smile. "Bye Gideon!"

The grin, as expected, wasn't returned, but Bud had pretty much expected that. After all, the sole reason he had sent Gideon here was because he couldn't handle that child and his abuse any longer. He knew he and Stanford didn't particularly get on, but that man was the only person he knew that wouldn't fear the boy like he and his wife did. With a quick, albeit sad, wave, the man walked away.

Gideon glared at the self proclaimed 'Mr Mystery', a glare venomous enough to scare a lion witless.

Stan only smirked mockingly at him in response to that. "Come in then, you little brat."

Gideon gritted his teeth and crossed his arms childishly. "NO! I'm NOT gonna go in there! F'rget it!"

Stan shrugged. "Fine, stay out here. Get pneumonia. Either way, I get payed."

Gideon glared at him and was just about to protest, when a strong gust of wind charged towards him, causing his hair to bop up and down comically. The boy let out an involuntary shiver. It was really freezing today, though it WAS the middle of winter break, so he guessed it made sense.

Stan sighed and ushered the boy in. "C'mon kid. The shack has heating."

With one last shiver, Gideon willingly followed the man inside. He hated the cold, even more so than Stan. He decided he'd leave as soon as the weather got better.

The young psychic followed the man into the living room, an annoyed look on his face. He wasn't used to people telling him what to do and he hated it. Least of all, being at the mercy of _Stan_ of all people.

Suddenly, he perked up. He could hear voices. One of the voices in particular caught his ears as he entered the room.

"Pacifica 'aint so bad! There are people way way waaaaaaaay worse!"

Gideon's face immediately brightened up. "MABEL, ma darlin' marshmella!"

The girl gasped and Dipper scowled. "Worse? Like, _him_, for example?"

"What are you doing here, Gideon?" The girl asked, almost worriedly. She didn't like the idea of being near that guy for too long. He was such a creep.

The boy opened his mouth to reply, when he was suddenly charged at by a certain pig that had been in the vicinity. Gideon screamed as the animal rammed into him and knocked him to the ground. Dipper laughed at the sight of Waddles stood on Gideon's stomach, staring down at him through those blank, black eyes.

"Auuuughhh! Get 'im offa me! Get 'im offa meeee!"

Mabel, frowning worriedly, picked the pig up and placed him onto the ground. Gideon sighed with relief. He knew his darling Mabel would save him from that beast. She was so kind!

"Why thank y-"

"Waddles, are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?" Completely ignoring Gideon, Mabel worriedly examined her pig for any injuries. "You shouldn't just attack people like that!"

Gideon crossed his arms and glared at the floor. What was the world coming to when an _animal_ meant more to her than _he_ did? He was going to hate it here, and he knew it.

Meanwhile, Pacifica watched, disgusted. "Oh. My. God," she muttered irritatedly to herself. "_Please_ tell me I don't have to live with that filthy convict…"

Mabel, hearing her, gave her an incredulous look and the blonde girl shrugged in response. "What? He might be contagious!"

Dipper smirked, but forced himself to withhold his laughter. If he was going to be living with him for a while, he didn't think it would be a good idea to invoke Gideon's wrath.

Gideon, finally recovering from the shock of the merciless pig attack, shot daggers at Pacifica. "_Contagious? " _His tone was harsh- the psychic was officially miffed. "At least I ain't some spoiled _daddy's girl _that's only rich 'cuz of a _lie_!"

Pacifica's eye twitched. Now she was mad. "Ugh! At least I've never been _arrested_! Tell me, how was that '_widdle old' _prison cell, huh?"

"Don't mock me!"

"Then don't insult my family!"

"**QUIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEETTTTT!"**

The two stopped glaring at each other to look at Mabel. She didn't look any happier than they had been.

Pacifica raised an irritated bleached eyebrow. "Or what?"

Mabel took to looking over at Dipper, so he took that as his cue to be the 'idea guy'.

"Okay, look," he told them, planting his hands on his hips. "If we're going to be living together, we need some rules." He'd write a long list, but he wasn't entirely sure that the two wouldn't rip each other apart in the time it took to create one. "First off, you two-"

"-need to be nice to Waddles!" The more hyper of the twins interrupted with a grin.

The two visitors collectively rolled their eyes. "Definitely not." They said in unison.

"C'moooooooon guys! Waddles is a special piiiiiiiiiig!" Mabel whined, clutching her pet protectively around its' round stomach.

Dipper shrugged and said, almost mockingly, "You better do what she says or she's not gonna stop persisting."

"PleasepleasepleasepleasePLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!"

Begrudgingly, with an irritated sigh on Pacifica's part, the two finally nodded, if only to stop that racket.

Dipper smirked at his beaming sister and turned his attention back over to the jerks that would be staying with them. "Okay, with that out of the way, rule 2 i-"

"Hold on a darn minute, Pines."

The other boy groaned. "What is it _now_, Gideon?"

"Where we all gonna sleep? Don't ya and Mabel sleep in that attic?"

Dipper nodded, mentally not trying to think about how Gideon would know that. He crossed his arms and pinned Gideon with a glare.

"I was getting to that. We have a spare room in the hall you can use, but we only have enough room to share, and there's _no way _I'm letting you sleep in the same room as my sister."

The boy pouted and Pacifica shot both boys a disgusted look. "_What? _I'm a Northwest! Northwest's don't _share_!" She planted her hands angrily on her hips, and Mabel was suddenly reminded of the host of 'Why you ackin' so cray cray?'. "Especially with _that_ brat," she continued. "You can forget it! Nuh uh, _no _way!"

Dipper exhaled loudly. This was getting ridiculous. "Fine, then you'll room with Mabel. Now, anyone else got anything to say before I'm rudely interrupted again, or can I carry on with the rules?"

"I get the TV on Tuesday nights," Gideon grumbled, "and you gotta deal."

Mabel gave him a thumbs up. "I think we can do that! What do you think, Sir Waddles?" The pig oinked in confirmation and the girl giggled. Pacifica only rolled her eyes, but Gideon found himself smiling. Still, he said nothing else.

"Whatever." Pacifica rolled her eyes. "I'm going to my room."

Dipper frowned. "But what about the rest of the ru-"

She was already gone. "Oh COME ON! Is it SO HARD to listen to some simple RULES?"

Mabel gave him a pitying look and patted him on the shoulder. "Let it go, bro-bro. Let it go."

With a sigh, Dipper looked over at Gideon. "Then I guess I'll show you to my-uh OUR room." He shuddered. He couldn't believe we was going to have to share a room with _Gideon_. This was going to be a total nightmare.

With a giggle, Mabel picked up Waddles and followed them.

"I CALL THE CHANGEY CARPET ROOOOOM!"

"Darn it!"

Still giggling, Mabel sped off down the hall towards the room, grabbing a surprised Pacifica by the hand as she did so.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here comes Chapter Two! I've been bed-ridden with a bug for a few days, so I've had plenty of time to write. Thanks so much for all the reviews, guys! :D Even though I don't always reply to reviews, I still read them all and I really appreciate them. ^^**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls or any of its' characters. Those are owned by incredibly evil yet awesome Alex Hirsch and Disney._**

**Chapter Two**

"I can't believe you _actually_ sleep in this here attic," Gideon complained as he walked into the room. He looked around and wiped his hand on his pristine suit as if the door it had just touched had been filthy. "I 'ain't sleepin' here!**"**

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Well you're going to have to deal with it, Gideon. There's nowhere else you can stay." He went over to his bed and started putting away various sheets of paper into a drawer next to his bed. They were all covered in notes about the journal and that was something he _really_ didn't want Gideon reading. "But hey," he continued. "If you wanna sleep on the floor outside the shack, be my guest."

Gideon growled at him. "Now, you listen here, boy! I-"

"-Gideon, we're the same age," Dipper interrupted, with a deadpan tone. "You may even be younger, actually."

"WHATEVER!" He retorted back angrily. "Point is, you don't go to MY side of the room, I don't go to yours, deal?" He picked up a piece of chalk that he found on the floor next to his feet and drew a sketchy line with it in the middle of the floor, splitting up the room into two sections.

Dipper stared at him incredulously. "Dude, the door is on _your_ side. How am I supposed to get out?"

Gideon smirked evilly. "There's a window on your side. Maybe you'll survive the fall."

Dipper glared at him and looked desperately at the door. "GRUNKLE STAN! I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH YOU'RE GETTING PAID! I CAN'T DO THIS!"

To his surprise, it was Mabel that opened the door. "Yeeesh! What's goin' on in here?"

"Mabel? What are you doing in here?" Her brother asked.

The girl walked over to her bed and picked up several of her things, a box of her signature jumpers, and an assortment of posters of various boybands that were stuck on the wall.

"Came to get my stuff. Why are you freakin' out, anyway?"

Dipper opened his mouth to complain to her, when he glanced over at Gideon. No, he couldn't do that. His shoulders visibly slumped.

"Oh, um, nothing. Nothing. Just saw a… cockroach."

Mabel laughed at him. "You're such a wimp, Dipping Sauce! Anyhow, I'm gonna go see if I can get Pacifica to agree to a sleepover! Later!"

"See ya, Mabel…"

Gideon raised an eyebrow at how deflated the boy had suddenly become, and watched as Mabel vanished out of the door.

"Why did ya do that?" He questioned, once he was sure that Mabel was no longer in earshot.

Dipper straightened his hat on his head and sat defeatedly on his bed. "Do what?"

"You were gonna tell Mabel about me. Why didn't ya?"

Dipper sighed and decided there was no harm in telling him. "I've got no choice, okay? If I told her, she'd only insist on switching rooms."

"Ain't that what you want?"

"Well yeah, but… then she'd have a hard time instead of me. It's not worth it, Gideon."

The child psychic walked over to his new bed and sat down on it himself, dragging his small suitcase along with him. "Ah'm not Bill Cipher, for cripes sake…" he muttered, a little too loudly.

Dipper smirked. In a way, it was kind of nice knowing more people that knew about all this stuff.

"Yeah, but you may as well be. You freak my sister out."

"Do not!"

Dipper scoffed and put both hands on his heart. "Oh MABEL!" He exclaimed, obviously mocking the white haired boy. "My _darling marshmallow_! I know you _dumped me_ and I _swore vengeance_ on your family, but you want a foot rub?"

Gideon started unpacking his things onto his bed, but Dipper swore he heard him mutter something angrily under his breath, "Okay, so maybe ah'm not good with girls, you little punk…"

Dipper had to bite his tongue to stop himself from laughing out loud. After all, he didn't have a death wish.

Pacifica stared in disgust at the girl on the other side of the room. What was she _doing?_ She watched as the girl finished sticking up several band posters and was now… well, it _looked_ like she was playing chess with her pig. But that was ridiculous! Wait, hold on a minute; this was _Mabel_. Nevermind. She wouldn't be surprised if the girl actually started- yup, she was oinking. _For the love of Prada._ Pacifica swore she could almost feel her brain cells dying as she remained in the same room as that Pines twin. How long was she supposed to endure this, again? It was interesting, actually, how different Mabel was to her twin. What was his name again? Trucker? Danny?

"His name's Dipper," Mabel interjected cheerfully.

The blonde raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"You were wondering what my twin's name was. Though obviously, Dipper isn't his _real_ name."

Oh god, she must have been thinking out loud. "Um, what's his real name?" She didn't know how much the other girl had heard, but she decided it would be best to not address it right now.

"I'd tell you…" she told her mysteriously, "...but then I'd have to kill ya!"

Pacifica started edging towards the door. Mabel laughed at her panicked expression.

"I'm joking! You've gotta chill, Passy!" She reassured her with a wide braced grin.

Pacifica rolled her eyes. "Like, _don't_ call me that."

The brunette shrugged, not looking even remotely bothered at the other girl's attitude towards her. "Why dont'cha put your stuff away? You're gonna be here a while, after all." She gestured to the pink diamond encrusted suitcase that the girl had brought with her.

"Isn't your butler going to do that for me?"

Mabel scoffed. "Soos? Naa. Just dump your junk anywhere."

Pacifica eyed the other girl suspiciously, trying to find some hint that Mabel was trying to get her into some kind of trouble. Finding none, she cautiously started unpacking her bag. Did she seriously mean that she could put her things anywhere at all? Back home, everything had a specific place and she'd only have to ask the butlers for whatever she needed and they'd always be able to find it for her in its' designated spot. How did this family ever find anything? She took a makeup bag out and placed it one of the wooden shelves near her bed. She needed that bag, no matter where she went. As her parents had always taught her, looks were the most important thing for a Northwest. Well, looks and _money_.

"Ooh, makeup!" Mabel exclaimed, eyeing the various tubes of mascara and lipstick that the other girl had placed on top of her bed. "WOW, I've never seen so much makeup before!"

The blonde raised an eyebrow, until the reason for Mabel's excitement finally dawned on her. "Oh, that's right. You don't wear makeup. Do you even _have_ any?" She scoffed.

Mabel shrugged casually. "Meh, I have a bit, but I don't wear it much."

The blonde frowned. "_Why?_ Aren't you bothered about what people think of you?" She paused and made a noise of disbelief. "Oh, wait, of course you don't. You wear those _ugly_ sweaters." She pulled a disgusted face.

"Hey, I made those sweaters," The brunette informed her, mock sternly. "They're like my thing! Also, they're totally original!" She gestured to the bright one she was wearing. It was a ridiculously fluffy teal coloured thing that had a large TARDiS on the front for her brother's favourite TV show. "I mean, you see anyone else wearing a sweater like this, before?"

"Oh, definitely not," was Pacifica's exasperated response. "But aren't you bothered what people are gonna say about those overly red cheeks? I mean, you could cover them up totally easy."

Mabel offered a large braced grin and another shrug. "Naa, I look adorable just the way I am!" She fluffed her long poofy hair, before pulling a silly face. Pacifica had to bite her cheek to stop herself from laughing at the ridiculous girl, but a small smile did manage to sneak its' way onto her face. She'd never known anybody to care so little about their appearance in front of people. Still, sharing a room with Mabel definitely wasn't going to boring.

"KIDS! Food is a thing!" called Stan's gruff voice from downstairs. "If you want some, you better hurry up!"

As the two made their way to dinner, Pacifica noticed Mabel grinning at her.

"What?"

"You know how we're sharing a room now?"

The blonde's eyes widened. "Forget it. No way. We're _not_ having a sleepover."

"Awwww c'mon!"

"No. Never."

Dinner, to put it bluntly, was a total disaster. For one, Pacifica absolutely refused to eat any of the 'poor people food'.

"C'mon Pacifica," Dipper tried reasoning, with an eyeroll. "It's not like Grunkle Stan is going to poison you or anything."

"I wouldn't put it passed him…" Gideon muttered angrily to himself. Staying with his arch-enemy was bad enough, but now he was cooking him food, _too_? Could this _be_ any more humiliating?

Stan sighed. "C'mon ya little delinquents. I'm not tryna kill ya. It's _just_ steak and my cooking can't be _that_ bad. Mabel's eatin' it!" They all looked over at Mabel, and sure enough, she was happily munching away on the meat. Her mouth full, she offered her great uncle a thumbs up that clearly approved his cooking. Pacifica looked disgustedly at the food on his plate and prodded it with her fork.

"Well I'm not eating it. Only the richest of meat is fitting for a Northwest and I'm not eating anything less," she told them haughtily. "Neither is Gideon. Right, Gi- oh COME ON!" The once stubborn boy was now wolfing the food down like he hadn't eaten in months. "Could you not stop yourself from eating for_ five minutes?!_"

The boy shrugged as he took large gulps of the food. "'m hung'y! Mmm… cnnt… hoysun… ush… on… ow… frsht...day." The rich girl didn't know what on earth he was saying, but she figured it went somewhere along the lines of _"I'm an enormous pig with an appetite bigger than my hair."_

With a scowl, she picked up the steak with her fork and took a nibble. She gagged when she realised that it really wasn't premium quality. Eww. Poor people food.

Dipper turned to glare at Stan. "I can't believe you're doing this to us!" he hissed angrily, but still quiet enough so that only Stan could hear. "Do you have _any_ idea how _hard_ this is gonna be for us?"

Stan offered his nephew an apologetic look. "Listen, kid. I don't like this anymore than you do," he hissed back. "But we don't got a choice. Besides, I think you and your sister could teach those brats a thing or two."

"But Grunkle Sta-"

"No buts, Dipper. Now eat your food," He glanced over at Gideon and his over-enthusiastic eating, "before _he_ does."

Dipper sighed, but seeing that there was no use trying to reason with his great uncle, picked up his fork and slumped. "Fine. But if any of us are emotionally scarred by the end of this, it's totally your fault," he muttered.

Stan sighed and put a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"I know, kid. I know."

Once they'd all finished, having nothing better to do, the kids decided to go back to their rooms. Before Gideon went to join his roommate upstairs though, he handed Stan his plate and mumbled something so quiet, that the man had to honestly strain his ears to hear it.

"...thanks for the food, a' guess."

The man raised an eyebrow and smirked mockingly at him. "What's was that?"

The little boy blushed and glared at him. "A' SAID THANKS! You got a hearin' problem or somethin', old man?"

Stan rolled his eyes. "So, I'm old. Cut me some slack, kid. 'sides, I just wanted to check I was hearing you right." He paused, as if considering something. "Why would you _thank_ me?"

Gideon shrugged and lowered his gaze to the floor. "The food… was edible. A' appreciate that. Ma' folks couldn't cook a half-decent steak t' save their lives."

Before the man could respond, Dipper's voice called from upstairs.

"HEY, GIDEON! WHAT'S THIS CAN FOR?"

The boy gasped and his eyes narrowed. "DON'T YOU TOUCH THAT DIPPER PINES! THAT THERE CAN IS WORTH MORE THAN YOUR HOUSE!"

Completely forgetting that Stan was still there, the boy patted the top of his hair affectionately and rushed upstairs. As he watched him go, Stan smirked to himself.

"You're welcome, you little brat," he told the empty room, before going over to the sink to clean the dishes.


	3. Chapter 3

**A bit of a short chappie, but hey, it's an update, right? Here, you can observe my attempts at possible character development. Oh god.**

**Remember, reviews are very welcome! ^^ ****I don't get many of those...**

_**Disclaimer:**__** If I really owned Gravity Falls, do you really think I would be writing fanfiction?**_

**Chapter 3**

Pacifica sighed with annoyance as she walked down the long hall. She couldn't stay in that room with Mabel for much longer. She was slowly getting used to the girl, but that didn't mean she wasn't driving her totally nuts! She hated this place. Everything was so… _used_. The idea of people owning something for more than a week was just _strange_. The girl glared scornfully at the carpet under the floor. It looked like it had been there for twenty years or something. Hearing loud noises, the girl looked up to find that she had stopped outside the lounge. She walked inside to find Stan watching some sort of boxing match.

"Mr Pines?"

The man looked up from the TV, an annoyed expression on his face. "Oh, it's _you_. Whaddaya want, kid?" He wasn't in the best of moods right now, what with everything that was going on today. He was hoping some TV would help him cheer up a bit, but so far, it wasn't working.

"We need to talk," she informed him, hands on her hips. "Mabel is driving me CRAZY!"

Stan rolled his eyes and tilted his head to the left in an attempt at looking at the TV that was now behind Pacifica's body. He was missing the match for _this_?

"Mabel drives _everyone_ nuts. Now move. I wanna watch this."

She didn't move. "But you don't _understand_! She's talking to that, ugh, _dumb pig_ when I'm trying to sit on my bed, which, by the way, _barely_ feels like it's got a mattress! And seriously, would it _kill_ you to-"

That was it. Stan had had enough. He was too old for this. Was it too much to ask for some polite, obedient kids to stay with him for a change? Why did _he_ get landed with the loud ones?

"I'm not in the mood for this." He stood up slowly from his seat and Pacifica couldn't help but smile with satisfaction. He was going to sort things out for her. Even here, she could get her own way. She always assumed Stan would be harder t-

"Hey, what are you _DOING?!_"

Stan grunted as he dragged Pacifica by the wrist.

"You hate it so much here? Then fine. Get out." He shoved her roughly out of the front door. "Looking after Mabel and Dipper is hard enough as it is without you no good brats to deal with too."

With that, the door was slammed shut violently in her face. The guy was clearly in a really bad mood. Pacifica stared at the door, body paralysed.

"What the-" she muttered. "DID THAT OLD COOT JUST SLAM THE DOOR IN MY FACE?!" Her eyes blazed. Red faced, she banged loudly on the wooden door. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS MR PINES!" she shrieked. "I'M A NORTHWEST! YOU CAN'T TREAT ME LIKE THIS!"

She heard a quiet scoff from behind her. "Well get used to it, darlin', cuz it don't look like we're gettin' back in there anytime soon."

Pacifica whipped her head around to look at him. She raised an eyebrow.

"He kicked _you_ out too?"

Gideon nodded. "Yeah. Nobody ever told me that stayin' with him meant bein' nice to him too." He glared at the floor. "Mah father is gonna pay _dearly_ for this."

Pacifica slumped. "How could my parents _do this_ to me? Are they trying to teach me a lesson or something? Was I not _good enough_ for them that they wanted to get _rid_ of me while they went on holiday?" She could feel tears gathering up in her eyes now.

"Ah' think both of our parents wanted a break from us," Gideon suddenly said.  
Pacifica's breath hitched. Overwhelmed by her own thoughts, she had completely forgotten that Gideon was still there, listening to every word she was saying.  
"Are we honestly that bad?" He continued, sounding just as dejected as she felt.  
"Well you _were_ in prison," the girl said quietly. "That probably doesn't look good for your family's reputation. But what about _me_? I don't, like, commit crimes or anything. Have I let them down? Did I slip up and not be perfect in public at one point? I don't-"

Gideon frowned and held his hands up. "Wait, hold on a darn minute. They expect you to act how they want?"

"Well yeah. The Northwest's have a certain image."

"And ya don't think that's wrong?"

The blonde paused. "Well I-that's not-" She cut her hesitation short with a sigh. "I don't know. You used to do performing before the whole prison thing, right? Don't your parents try to get you to hold onto the image that everyone sees your family as?"

"Darlin', I _created_ that image. Though I gotta admit, not being able to order my parents around in public is a mite stressful."

Now it was Pacifica's turn to frown. "Wait, you tell your own parents what to do?"

"Yeah. It 'aint like 'ahm gonna let them tell me what to do just 'cus they're older."

Pacifica narrowed her crystal eyes. "Gideon, that's totally wrong."

Gideon rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Ya sound like one of the Pines fam'ly."

The girl gasped. "Shut UP!" She started playing distractedly with a bracelet on her wrist. "My point is, sure, my parents drive me nuts, but they're totally rich and they look after me, so I _try_ to make them happy."

The white haired boy didn't respond, but there was a frown on his small face. Before Pacifica could say anything else though, a strong gust of wind blew past them and the two pre-teens involuntarily shuddered.

"L-look..." the boy shivered. "W-w-whether we... l-l-like it or not, S-Stanford... is s'posed to be lookin' after us for a while-"

"-Not that I'm ever r-r-regarding HIM as... a c-caretaker,"

"-agreed. Point is, 'ahm f-f-freezin'! We're g-gonna h-hafta... p-p-put up with him and the t-twins if we wanna have a place t' stay. We dunno w-when our… p-parents are comin' back and S-Stanford... has a r-real short f-f-fuse."

Pacifica sneezed, but tried to nod all the same. "To-totally."

She turned to the door and gave it a shaky knock. Her white knuckles weren't very loud on the large wooden door, but apparently, it was loud enough. The door opened.

"Oh gosh, are you guys alright?" It was Dipper. Apparently, he hadn't known they were out here. "It's freezing! What are you two doing out here?"

Gideon glared at him. "S-S-Stanford… k-kicked us out."

The older boy's eyes widened. "He _what_?" He didn't particularly like Gideon or Pacifica, but it was _freezing_ out here. He looked inside the house. "GRUNKLE STAN!" he shouted. "CAN YOU COME HERE FOR A SEC?"

They heard a grumbling noise, and then the man approached the door.

"Dipper, what's- oh. Forgot you brats were still out here."

"You've got to let them back in, Grunkle Stan. They look really cold."

He looked over at the two other kids. Sure enough, they were shivering. Their teeth were chattering loudly and their hair was all over the place. He raised an eyebrow at them, and they instantly knew what they had to do.

"_P-Please_… let us b-b-back in!"

"Y-Yeah, please! We're s-s-sorry!"

They both looked at each other and said in unison; "It's f-f-freezing out h-here!"

Stan sighed. They DID look like they meant it. Heck, even _Gideon_ looked apologetic.

"Fine. Now get in here before you get ill or somethin'. Don't want _that_ on my conscience."

They hastily obeyed and followed Stan into the house. Just before she entered though, Pacifica turned around to smile at Dipper as as silent thank you. He didn't have to try to convince Stan to let them come in, but he did anyway, despite their rather rocky history. The boy blinked at the action before offering her a small smile of his own and making his way back upstairs. Gideon and Pacifica followed him up to their respective rooms. All the two of them wanted to do now was sleep. Today had been totally exhausting.

When Gideon entered the room he shared with Dipper, the first thing he did was get into his bed and wrap the covers around himself. He was _still_ freezing. Dipper frowned and went downstairs. When he came back, he had a cup of something hot in his hands.

"Gideon-"

"I know," he glared. "Mah shiverin' is _hilarious_ and you're really gonna enjoy watching it while you drink whatever _that_ is."

Dipper sighed. "Making you miserable isn't my life mission, you know." He handed him the cup of, what he now realised was, hot chocolate. "You looked freezing, so I had Soos make you something warm." Catching the suspicious look he was getting, Dipper held both hands out defensively. "It's not poisoned, I swear."

Gideon took a tentative sip of the warm liquid and couldn't stop the satisfied sigh from escaping from his mouth as he did so. He hadn't had hot chocolate in a long time, and it was _absolutely amazing_ when his insides felt so cold. Chocolate was already his one weakness anyway, but the fact that Dipper had gone downstairs and got this for him was surprisingly nice. It was _weird_. He looked over at his roommate, of whom was sat on the other side of the room now, reading some sort of book in bed.

"Hey, uh, Dipper?"

The boy looked up from the book. "Yeah?"

"Thanks." The boy himself, though the word had been mumbled, found it sounding a lot more sincere than he had intended.  
Dipper only nodded in response, a small smirk on his face. "You're welcome, Gideon." With that said, the boy went back to his book, and Gideon went back to his warm beverage. Perhaps staying here a bit longer wouldn't be so bad after all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Oh my God, you guys, I am SO sorry I haven't been updating this. This story isn't dead, I promise. Life has just been getting a bit crazy and I'm also working on an original story in my free time, so I haven't really had time to think about this fic. I'll try to update a lot more in the future though. I thank you for your patience. You guys are the best! :D**

**Shout out to StkAmbln for reminding me that this fic still exists! ^_^**

**Remember guys, reviews are welcome! They make me update faster! :D**

**Disclaimer:****_I do not own Gravity Falls, but I really wish I did._**

**Chapter Four**

The next morning, Gideon groaned as he found yet another person trying to wake him. First it had taken him a moment to remember where he was, but once he had, he'd found both Soos and Dipper trying to get him up. He stubbornly refused to move of course. He didn't know why they wanted him up so badly, but they could wait until he was good and ready to get up himself. They had tried shaking him and asking him politely to go down for breakfast, but each time, he refused. Even Mabel's attempts at trying to shake him awake had been in vain. Eventually, he had assumed they had just given up.

He was wrong.

"Get up, you little runt," a gruff voice ordered. The boy's breath hitched. He recognised that voice and it wasn't a particularly friendly one. He clutched onto the cover tighter.

"F'rget it, Stanford…" he mumbled from under his covers. "I 'aint...movin'..."

The man shrugged. "Well, you asked for it, kid."

Before Gideon could register that sentence, his cover was roughly yanked away from him. Unfortunately, the boy had still been clinging tightly to it and was pulled off of the bed with it. He groaned and glared up at the source of his misery.

"What in tarnation was _that_ for?!"

Stan rolled his eyes and pulled Gideon's arm up so that he was standing on those stubby legs of his. "You didn't expect ta stay here for _free _did ya? I need you and the rest of the kids to work in the Mystery Shack today. You can't do that if you're still asleep."

Gideon tore his arm away from the man. "But ma Dad is payin' ya!"

Stan shrugged. "You can never have too much money, kid. Besides, for some reason, people find you adorable. The holiday makin' idiots'll love ya." He started walking towards the door. "Now come on, you've got just enough time for breakfast before the gift shop opens."

Muttering various curse words under his breath, Gideon begrudgingly followed the man downstairs. When he made his way into the kitchen, Mabel and Dipper were already happily munching on what looked like bacon and eggs. Gideon sat down next to Mabel, licking his lips at the sight of what was on the plate in front of him. He had to admit, one of the most surprisingly things he had learnt lately, was the fact that Stanford could _actually_ cook. That bacon looked _so _delicious. Stan smirked at the youngest boy's enthusiastic grin.

Pacifica, however, didn't look nearly as cheerful. She glared scornfully at the food in front of her. Back home, she would be feasting on only the finest of pancakes and the most expensive syrup available, for her breakfast. Bacon and eggs were just so… _boring_. She took a nibble at some of the bacon and gagged. Eww. The taste of the pork was way too strong on her taste buds and the food itself was way too chewy. No, this wouldn't do. She looked over at everyone else. Gideon, as per usual, was wolfing down whatever was on his plate like the pig that he was, and the twins were having a heated debate over what the perfect pancake topping was while they munched on pieces of bacon. She looked over at Stan- he was slurping down some orange juice as he read the latest edition of _The Gravity Falls Gossiper_. Everyone was pretty much distracted.

That was when she heard a strange noise to her left.

"Oink?"

Pacifica scowled. It was Mabel's dumb pig again. Terrific. It had already tried to eat her comb this morning. What did it want _now_? The animal stared up at her expectantly, beady little eyes blinking innocently up at her.

"What do you _want_, pig?" she hissed. "You're not having my…" Her eyes widened as an idea suddenly struck her. She glanced at that disgusting excuse for bacon and then back to the pig. Well, if _she_ wasn't going to eat it…

"Hey, Pacifica," Dipper suddenly said, bringing everyone's attention to her. "You've been awfully quiet this morning."

The girl was so caught off guard, that she actually dropped the pork she'd been holding. It clattered to the floor and Waddles, being too hungry to care what he was eating, started gobbling the food up.

Pacifica tried to act nonchalant in the chance that nobody had noticed the pig- or the dropped pork- yet. "I'm just, uh, tired, I gue-"

"WADDLES?!" The blonde was cut off by Mabel's horrified scream. Instantly, everyone turned to look at the brunette.

"Mabel?" Dipper's brotherly concern was on like a light switch. "You okay?"

The girl was shaking now and she was pointing towards the floor. "S-she...she…" Her eyes were quickly filling up with tears.

"She? Mabel, speak to me!"

Ignoring Dipper, she managed to rip her gaze away from her pig to glare furiously at Pacifica.

"YOU MONSTER!"

Pacifica gulped guiltily. Yep, the girl knew. Dipper held his sister's arms down before she could lunge at the other girl. "Mabel, cool it!"

Stan finally looked up from his paper. He hadn't heard most of what happened because he had a habit of tuning out everything around him when he read something, but no-one could ignore Mabel's shouting for long.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" he asked. Gideon nearly joked on his eggs.

_Sweetie? Stanford can be affectionate?_

"S-She...m-m-made Waddles eat p-p-pork!" the girl blurted out, now looking a lot more upset than angry. "I-I k-know he eats e-everything, b-b-but t-that's...that's j-just EVIL!"

Stan gave Pacifica a disgusted look. "Oh jeez, kid. He's a _pig_… that's just… ugh, that just 'aint right."

Dipper glared venomously at her. "Nice one, Pacifica. If you didn't like the food, you could have just _said_ something."

Pacifica stared at the floor, shamefaced. What was she _thinking_? Was this classified as forced cannibalism? She glanced at the pig- he'd finished all the pork. There was no way to get her out of trouble now.

Stan sighed. "We don't have time for this. You kids need to get to the gift shop before it opens." He turned to Pacifica and gave her the sharpest glare he could. "And I'll deal with _you_ later."

Not waiting for any room for debate, the man left.

Gideon glared at the blonde. "That's _sick_, ya know that? Next time ya don't wanna eat the bacon, give it to me or somethin'." Hearing sniffling beside him, the younger boy turned to Mabel. She was starting to cry. "Are ya okay?"

Hearing the uncharacteristic concern in the boy's voice, Mabel looked up at him, eyes wide and watery. Before she could respond though, Dipper cut in.

"She's never going to go out with you," he told the white haired boy defensively, grabbing his sister's hand. "So just leave her alone, jerk. Can't you see she's upset?" Seriously, of all the times for Gideon to hit on his sister, he thought the guy would have the sense to do it when she _didn't_ look about to burst into tears.

Gideon glared back at him and let out a sigh. "Whatever. Stan's waitin' for us in the gift shop." He stormed out the room. The other pre-teens, having nothing better to do, reluctantly followed him.

"Ah, _there_ you are, kids!" The man's greeting _should _have been cheerful, judging by what was said, but Stan wasn't in the best mood right now, so it sounded more like he wanted to strangle all four of them where they stood.

He pointed to Pacifica. "You- whatever your name is- you're gonna work down here in the gift shop so I can keep a better eye on you." He pointed to Dipper. "And by 'I', I really mean 'you', kid."

Dipper opened his mouth to protest, but the man silenced him with a stern glare. Knowing better than to argue with a bad tempered Grunkle, Dipper simply glared at the floor.

_I hate my life._

"Gideon, you go clean the toilets or somethin'."

Gideon, unlike Dipper, _didn't _actually know better. "_What_? Why _me_?"

Any other day, Stan would have found the boy's disgusted expression laughable. Instead, he simply glared at him, voice getting harsher. "Because they _need doin'_ and I'm _not_ making my _own niece_ do it."

Gideon gritted his teeth angrily and crossed his arms. "Well I 'ain't doin' it neither!"

"Oh _yes _you are!"

"Oh _no _a'hm not!"

"_Do it_, you little runt!"

"_Make me_, old man!"

Stan opened his mouth to retort something else, when he heard Mabel's unusually quiet voice.

"I-I'll do it...w-with him, G-Grunkle… S-Stan." Her voice was shaky and her eyes still showed the beginnings of tears, but at least she was finally saying something. Mabel had been surprisingly quiet during this whole thing and the man had been secretly worried about her.

Stan sighed. "Fine, go ahead. I've got papers to sign."

The kids didn't even wait to see him storm off before they went to their designated areas.

Gideon frowned as he sat inside the gift shop's bathroom with Mabel. Luckily for him, the place was unisex, though it would kind of have to be, considering it was the only bathroom that non-family members had access to.

Fed up of mentally steaming about Stan, Gideon looked up at Mabel. She still looked upset, but her gaze was pinned to the floor. He frowned. Had it always been this quiet in here?

"You sure you're okay?"

The girl merely nodded and, after a long silence, finally spoke. "W-why… do you keep… a-asking me… t-that?"

The boy sighed and went to sit next to her, though he said nothing else.

Mabel frowned. " I-I'm never gonna d-date you, G-Gideon. Y-you know that, r-right?"

The boy shrugged casually. "Ahm stayin' optimistic 'bout that."

The brunette let out a small scoff, but her glassy chestnut irises never left the ground, so the boy continued. He hoped he was making at least _some_ progress in cheering her up. He frowned as his next words spilled out before he could stop them.

"I… don't like seein' ya cry."

_That _made Mabel look up. She gave him a sincere smile and, to his surprise… burst into tears.

Gideon didn't know what to do. To be honest, he'd never had to deal with a crying friend before, if he could even classify her as a friend, that is. He didn't know what he was doing. Was there… a _manual_ he could consult when a girl randomly bursts into tears in front of you?

"M-Mabel? Darlin', I don't-" He fumbled into his signature blue suit for something that could help him and came across an expensive white handkerchief made of silk.

"Ah, um, here." He handed it to her. "For your, uh, tears."

The girl took it, sobbing into it as hard as she could. At least Gideon was _trying_ to be nice. It was kind of adorable. Well, adorable in a 'waddles wearing a suit' kind of way, not- _ewww_.

If it had been anyone else, Mabel would have hugged him. However, as this was indeed Gideon, she stopped herself. When she had finally released all of her sobs into the silk, she looked her watery eyes up at him. She had a small smile on her face, much to the boy's surprise.

"See? You're not a _total _jerk."

The boy blinked. "Um… what?"

Mabel giggled, all hints of sadness gone. It was still evident in her eyes, but she was trying not to let in show in favour of proving her hypothesis right. Wow, _hypothesi_s? Dipper would be proud.

"You care about someone that isn't you for a change. I _knew _you could be nice!"

Gideon frowned and turned his back to her. "I don't know what you're talkin' 'bout." He picked up one of the cleaning materials that Stan had supplied for them. "Now c'mon. I'd rather get this done quickly."

Mabel smirked, but nodded all the same. To be honest, she wanted to get out of here too.

"Okay, where do we start?"

"Beats me."

They both chuckled, before setting about doing their first task- figuring out how the heck you were supposed to bleach a toilet.

As Gideon studied the bottle for instructions, Mabel quickly shoved the handkerchief he had given her into her pocket. This was one for the scrapbook.

The blonde huffed. She was _not _having fun. Nobody was paying attention to her at all! Sure, she'd induced a forced cannibalism to the household pet or whatever, but that had happened _hours ago. _Get over it already! She tried bribing Dipper, or at least _Wendy _to talk to her, but neither of them would take the bait. Wendy was far too occupied with the latest issue of 'Teenage Rebellion', and Dipper was still mad at her for upsetting his sister.

"Hey, Dipper, where do the postcards go again?"

With a glare, he pointed towards the postcard rack and turned his back to her, presumably to get back to what he had been told to do.

"Hey, Wendy, was it? I-"

"Zip it, kid. It's gettin' to the best part!"

The girl sighed and let her gaze drift to the window. She hated this. She hated this a lot. There wasn't even- hey, what was _that_? She squinted her eyes past the overbearing tree shapes and wooden signs. There was a black… thing. She couldn't really tell what it was from here, but it looked like a moving shadow. What was it doing out there in the woo-

She lost her train of thought when she felt someone tap her shoulder.

"Ah! Uh...um, hi Dipper."

He didn't verbally respond. Of course not. Why _would_ he? She was handed a broom.

For a minute, Pacifica only stared at it in confusion. Why would he- wait…

...was this his mute way of saying '_get back to work' _or something?! She stomped a high-heeled foot childishly.

"Ugh, STOP IT! Just _speak_ to me!"

Dipper smirked and pretended to shrug casually. He was smart enough. He probably realised how much this was annoying her.

"Come _on, _you weirdo! This isn't, like, very funny, you know!"

The look on Dipper's face said otherwise. Apparently, this was priceless.

"Ugh, COME ON! It's not even a BIG DEAL!" Pacifica exclaimed angrily to the boy. She was so sick of this by now, that she didn't care if anyone saw her making a scene. At least it meant that they noticed her.

"I mean, SERIOUSLY! It's just a DUMB PIG! GET A-"

_Slap!_

Pacifica gasped and clutched at her left hand, which was now burning. Did he just-

"This ISN'T about the PIG, you SPOILT RICH GIRL!" Dipper finally yelled back, face red, eyes burning with protective fury. She didn't think she'd ever seen him look so angry before.

"You made my sister CRY! You KNEW how much Waddles meant to Mabel, but you're just SO BUSY being BETTER than all us COMMONERS to care!"

He crossed his arms and let out a sigh, trying to calm himself down. Getting angry wasn't going to fix anything. He just hated it how cruel Pacifica could be to his twin for just being herself. He'd seen how upset Mabel could get because of her, but this drew the line.

The girl blinked, tears forming in her eyes. Apparently, she had really underestimated how much Dipper cared for his sister. She blew on her hand. Ouch, it was really stinging! Red was _not _a good look on her.

"I never… I never _wanted_ to come here, you know," she told him bitterly.

Dipper scoffed, going back to his original job of sweeping the floor with a broom. "What, your parents didn't have time to rent a villa for you to stay in instead?"

"Yeah, actually. They were too busy renting their own villa in France." She sighed and looked out of the window again, into the wilderness. "The truth is… they're not on a business trip. They went on holiday. Without me."

"And I'm supposed to feel bad for you?"

She was silent, but Dipper noticed from the corner of his eye that she seemed to be rubbing that hand an awful lot. He sighed and held his hand out for her. The girl flinched, but took it into her good hand and followed him as he made his way into the house and into his bedroom. She watched as the boy opened a cupboard next to his bed. It was full to the brim with paper, but underneath it was a large box. He took it out of the cupboard and took out a roll of bandages.

"Look, I'm sorry for hitting you. I just got mad, I guess." He wrapped the gauze around her sore outstretched hand.

"Yeah, like, no kidding." She glared at the floor. "Your whole family are weirdos. I thought _you _were at least normal."

Dipper glared back.

"Honestly, I don't care what you think of me, but leave my sister _alone_. For God's sake, you can't go round treating everyone like dirt just because you have a lot more money than the rest of us." He tightened the gauze and exited the room.

Pacifica sighed as she watched him go. Maybe she was better off trying to get on with the Pines, after all. She had always been taught that showing your superiority over others was how you made friends and gained respect, but that was obviously not how this family saw it. Lately, every time she had commented about things in that house not being up to her standard and tried to explain to them how much better than them that she was, she had gotten punished for it. First, she had refused to eat their crappy low-budget food and had gone hungry for the rest of the day, and then she had been forced outside into the freezing cold. She didn't even _want _to think about how Mr Pines would punish her later for making Mabel cry.

She sighed and made her way downstairs. Pacifica was a snob, but she wasn't stupid. She knew that, if she continued like this, she would be left to sleeping on the streets by the end of the week. As much as she hated staying with the Pines and Gideon, it was better than _that._ Maybe she should… she gulped. _Apologize _to Mabel. It beat receiving all of this animosity. Besides, she shared a room with Braces, so she would rather not have her hating her.

Dinner was a very tense affair. Pacifica was silent for the first time in her life and everyone else was glaring at her as they ate. The girl really hated the food she was eating, but decided she had to just deal with it. She was _not _in a position to complain right now. She sighed as she pushed around the mashed potatoes on her plate. In her peripheral vision, she could see Mabel sniffling as she held her pig in her arms, probably to make sure it wasn't handed anymore pork. Pacifica put down her fork. She couldn't take this guilt anymore.

"M-Mabel?" Her voice was surprisingly quiet and somewhat subdued, making Mabel's harsh glare falter a little. The blonde paused and fiddled with the fork distractedly. "I...I'm, like, really...really…" She looked over at Dipper for guidance. "What was that word again?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "What, 'sorry'?"

She nodded and turned back to Mabel. "Yeah, that's it. Thanks." She lowered her head, deciding she didn't want to see the other girl's reaction. "_S-Sorry_. Really. Super sorry. I… ugh, I don't know what I was, like, _thinking_. I hope the pig's okay."

"Wow," Gideon muttered. "Ah don't think I've _ever_ seen 'er lookin' so apologetic."

Hearing this, Pacifica stood up and walked to the kitchen door with a sigh. "Well, whatever. Call me a liar if you want, but I'm gonna go to my...well..._our _room." She paused by the doorframe, still not being able to look Mabel in the eye. "When I get home, I promise I'll buy some decent food for your pig to say sorry." She rolled her eyes at herself. "Feeding pork to a pig- dumbest idea _ever. _What was I _thinking_?"

She turned around just in time to see two small arms wrapping tightly around her. The arms were incredibly fluffy. She looked up to see the brunette grinning at her.

"See? I KNEW you weren't totally heartless!" She frowned. "Well, I _did_ have my doubts for a while there, but my point is, you're not a TOTAL jerk, and now I have proof!"

Pacifica smirked, but didn't have the heart to shove the girl off of her. "Wow, thanks. So does this mean that you forgive me?"

She received a large braced grin in response. "Yeah, but only if you agree to buy Waddles some of that premium quality pig food to make it up to him. Not the cheap stuff. _Premium _pig food_. _Only the best for Senior Waddles!"

The blonde laughed. "Deal. I-"

"And _where _do ya think you're going, you little brat?"

The kids looked up to see Stan walk into the kitchen. He glared down at the girl and she hung her head, much to his surprise.

"Hey, Mr Pines."

He planted his hands on his hips as if he hadn't heard her. It had taken him a while, but Stan had finally thought of an accurate punishment for the girl and he intended to have her do it.

"After the stunt you pulled today, you're not goin' anywhere until you tidy this kitchen spotless."

Mabel tried to protest, and Pacifica appreciated that a lot. She glanced at the boys through her peripheral vision. Gideon was smirking, obviously glad that it wasn't him in trouble this time, and Dipper was giving her a sympathetic look. She knew what she had to do.

"But Grunkle Stan, she alrea-"

The blonde sighed and cut the other girl off. "It's okay. I'll do it." She was _so_ going to hate this, but she knew there was no use arguing. Stan was going to punish her regardless. She may as well take her punishment and get it over with. Still though, ugh, _cleaning_?! Gross!

Stan smirked at her disgusted look. "Have fun, kid." He raised a fuzzy eyebrow. "Hey, wait a sec. What happened to your hand?" The girl blinked. She didn't realise it, but the entire time she had been talking to him, she had been subconsciously rubbing at her sore bandaged hand. You know, if Pacifica didn't know any better, she'd say Stan even sounded a little _concerned_ for her. That wasn't likely, though. She glanced at Dipper quickly, before bringing her attention back to Stan.

"I, um, trapped it in the door, but Dipper helped me patch it up." A half lie wasn't bad, at least. Dipper gave her a small thankful smile.

Stan, with a frown, shrugged. "Alright, kid. Well, get to it. The supplies are in the cupboard."

Mabel looked at the time and grinned at her brother. "Hey, bro bro! Ducktective is on!"

"Sweet!"

Dipper made his way out of the room, Gideon following him, until he stopped next to Pacifica.

"Thanks," he whispered to her with a smile. "I owe you one."

The girl grinned, trying to ignore the fact that her heart had just skipped a beat. She much preferred it when Dipper didn't hate her. He had this really cute smile and...wait _what?_

She shook her head. She shouldn't be thinking of stuff like that. She had other priorities. Like her punishment, for example. Ugh. She had a _lot _of work to do.

"Where are the supplies again?"

It had taken a good several hours, but Pacifica finally finished cleaning the kitchen. She would never admit it out loud, but she was actually pretty pleased at her handiwork. You could _eat _off of those floors. Even the tabletop near the sink was sparkling, which was a feat in itself considering that she couldn't even tell what it _was _before. Trying to ignore the feeling of accomplishment she had after doing such a horrible job, the girl walked into the lounge. Stan looked up at her from his slouched position on the sofa.

"Oh, so you're finally done, huh?"

She nodded and let out a yawn. "Yeah, I, um, think so. Can I go to my room, now?"

Without a word, the man walked into the kitchen to survey the girl's work, Pacifica following close behind. His eyes scanned around from the polished floors to the bleached sink. If he was honest, he was kind of impressed. He had given her this job thinking that it was impossible. After all, he'd tried to get Soos to clean it before, but it looked like a lost cause.

"This looks pretty good, kid," he told her, steely gaze softening. She had obviously put a lot of time and effort into this and hey, it benefitted him, so he couldn't really complain.

"I'd say you've pretty much completed your punishment. Don't you get into anymore trouble, kay?"

The girl nodded. Stan actually seemed to be pleased with her for something that, admittedly, she had worked really hard to do and it actually felt really great. She found a rather large smile sneak its' way onto her face. She didn't even _remember _the last time anybody had been so proud of her. Her parents always kind of expected her to do well, so she never really had any real joy in fulfilling their expectations. She yawned again.

"You'd better get some sleep, kid. You've been at this for hours and the others are already in bed."

Pacifica looked up at the kitchen's wall clock. When did it get to half ten?

"Yeah, good idea. Um, good night Mr Pines."

"G'night."

With another yawn, the blonde made her way down the hall to her new room. She opened the door quietly and slumped onto her bed. Wow, all that work had really taken it out of her.

"Pacifica?" Mabel asked groggily, as she heard the door creak shut. "Is that… you?"

She turned over to look at the bed on the other side of the room. Sure enough, she recognised the figure getting into it.

"Hey," the blonde yawned out as she pulled the covers over her. She didn't even bother putting any pyjamas on. "How's… Waddles… doing?"

The other girl squeezed the pig in her arms tightly. "He's feeling way better now." There was a loud, almost happy sounding snort. "He says thanks for asking!"

Pacifica rolled her eyes. Typical Mabel. Her eyes started shutting as the warmth of the covers started to comfort her aching limbs and whatever else Mabel said after that became a muffled blur. She was asleep in seconds.

Mabel, seeing her roommate fall asleep, shut her own eyes and tried to get to sleep herself. However, now that she was awake, she was finding it impossible to actually fall asleep again. She frowned as, ten minutes later, she heard a muttering noise.

"Mmmm...Di….uhh….wwww…."

Mabel smirked. Pacifica was talking in her sleep. She strained her ears to hear. Maybe she could get some blackmail on her.

"Di...Dipper…"

_Oh my god._

Mabel giggled. Had she heard that right? She looked over at the other girl. Sure enough, he blonde had an enormous grin on her face.

Oh, she was _definitely _going to have fun with _this_ one. With that thought in mind, Mabel finally fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, guys! Who's excited for the 13th? Personally, I don't think my feels are ready for a half an hour of Gravity Falls. Ready your tissues, guys!**

**Anyhow, here's the new update. I hope you enjoy it! :D**

**Remember, I always appreciate reviews! They make me update way quicker! :D**

**Disclaimer:****_I don't own Gravity Falls, because guess what? I'm not Alex Hirsch._**

**Chapter Five**

"Woah!" Mabel exclaimed as she walked into the kitchen the next morning. "Everything's so shiny!"

The other girl grinned and sat down. "Of course it is. It was me that cleaned up in here, after all."

Mabel giggled and Dipper walked in, a half asleep Gideon in tow.

"Yeah, this looks really great, actually. How long did it take?"

He sat down in the seat next to his sister just in time to stop Gideon from sitting there. Pacifica shrugged in an attempt to look casual.

"Not long. I-" She paused to frown at the other girl. "Mabel? What's so funny?"

The other girl smirked and tried to bury her laughter. "Oh, um… uh… n-nothing. Nothing. D-don't… don't mind m-me!"

Dipper frowned, but before he could question her, the twin hurriedly shoved a pancake into her mouth.

Gideon smirked. "Real subtle, darlin'."

The brunette burst out laughing. She couldn't help it. Gideon, she had to admit, had his moments. As predicted though, she also started choking.

"W-water! Water!" she choked out, trying to simultaneously swallow her food and her giggles.

Dipper only rolled his eyes amusedly at his sister. Gideon quickly handed her his glass, though she registered that, despite his couldn't-care-less attitude, his eyes were wide with panic. He hadn't meant for this to happen, obviously.

She nodded a thank you before glugging it down faster than Waddles could probably drink water in on the day of a drought. Once again, everyone was reminded of just how much lung capacity Mabel possessed.

**XXX**

"Okay kids. It's your favourite time again!"

The kids groaned as they entered the gift shop.

"Hey, don't look at me like that," Stan chuckled as he surveyed their depressed faces. "We've got lotsa tourists here today and I'm gonna need you lot to help me out."

He pointed at Gideon. "Right, y-"

Gideon frowned and cut him off. "Can I work in the gift shop? If I hafta see _one more_ tub of toilet bleach, I'm gonna lose it."

Stan smirked. "Alright, fine. You're on gift shop duty with Mabel."

The both of them collectively punched their fists into the air. Stan rolled his eyes and turned to the other two kids.

"You two," he pointed at them both, "are gonna be in charge of advertisement for those suckers out there that still don't know about us for whatever reason."

Dipper raised an eyebrow. "By 'advertisement' you don't mean-"

Pacifica sighed. "He's going to make us go into the forest and stick posters onto random trees, isn't he?"

Stan chuckled. "You catch on fast, kid. Now, get to it." He handed the girl a stack of colourful posters and Dipper took about half of them from her hands so that Pacifica could see where she was going.

"We're out of nails, but you can stick 'em between tree branches or somethin'. They're colourful enough."

The two nodded and made their way out of the door.

"Well, this should be fun."

"Tell me about it. Don't you just _love_ the woods?"

**XXX**

Gideon sighed as he stuck price stickers onto the various buyable items in the gift shop. Somehow, he'd expected that working here would be a lot more interesting. Instead, he was stuck doing unbearably mundane jobs on the other side of the room from Mabel, whilst he watched Stan con people out of all their money. He'd already dropped several pieces of merchandise, much to Stan's annoyance, and he hated hiding away behind a shelf in the event that a Gravity Falls resident spotted him there. Before he could get too upset over the idea that he was still on parole though, he saw Mabel looking over at him.

"HEY! SHACK BUDDY!" Mabel's shouting was accompanied with frenzied waving. "HOW'S IT OVER ON YOUR SIDE?"

Gideon laughed and waved back. Leave it to Mabel to cheer him up. Before he could shout back, though, he heard some commotion from the right of him.

"Ah, c'mon! Don't you wanna buy this...uh...mutated orange?"

The old woman rolled her eyes. She must have been around the same age as Stan and had obviously been subjected to quite a few con-mans in her day.

"Don't patronise me, sir. I know that's just an orange lemon."

It seemed Stan was having a little trouble getting a customer to buy something. Maybe it was time he showed the old man how it was done…

He approached the two and smirked at Stan, who only frowned suspiciously.

"What're you doin', kid? Bit busy, here."

"Watch and learn, old man."

He turned his attention to the old woman, who looked just about to leave.

"Would ya buy somethin'? " he pleaded in a small voice, his pupils enlarging adorably. "_Pweeeease?_"

The elderly woman smiled at the young boy. "Aww, you sweet little thing. Alright, I'll buy something, since you asked me so nicely."

Gideon smirked smugly as the woman walked out of the shop a few minutes later, a bag full of orange lemons and Stan bobbleheads.

Stan blinked as he watched the whole event unfold. "I… forgot you could do that."

The boy merely shrugged cockily and turned around to get back to what he had been doing previously.

"And where do ya think _you're _going, you little gremlin?"

Gideon turned around, genuinely shocked. "Huh? But I-"

"But nothin', kid. From now on, you're on customer conning duty. Let's put that deceit to some good use."

What he was saying should have been insulting, but the almost proud look on the old man's face said otherwise.

"Why thank you, Stanford," the boy grinned. "Your conning technique 'aint bad either. Bet I can con more people than you, though!"

Stan laughed. "Oh, you're ON, Gleeful! Loser has to watch tomorrow's Duchess Approves marathon!"

Gideon's eyes widened a little, before he finally nodded. "Deal."

**XXX**

Pacifica shuddered.

"Hey, you okay?"

The girl shook her head and slid a poster onto the nearest tree branch. Dipper was mentally surprised at how neatly it was done. All of his posters had giant tear marks in them.

"I'm fine. I just… really hate these woods."

"Really? How come?" He raised an eyebrow and tried to get the next poster to pierce a thick tree branch.

"You just, like, never know what's there, y'know? There could be anything in these woo-" She cut herself off as she noticed how much trouble Dipper was having with the tree branch. "Here, let me get that for you."

The boy handed her the poster, and she used a smaller, but sharper, branch below the thick one to tear a neat hole into the top of the poster.

"Try it now. It should fit the thicker branch now."

Dipper took the poster from her and, sure enough, the branch went neatly through it.

"Wow, thanks Pacifica. You're surprisingly good at this."

The girl shrugged casually, but her blushing cheeks gave away how much the comment actually meant to her. Her parents rarely praised her, so it made her feel surprisingly happy when she was. Even _Stan _had taken the time to tell her how pleased he was with the kitchen this morning. That guy wasn't exactly someone that was easy to please.

The girl looked into the thick of the woods in search of a tree, when a thought suddenly occurred to her. What even _was_ that creepy black thing she saw from the window yesterday?

Dipper raised an eyebrow. "Pacifica? You okay? You're kind of… staring into space."

The girl blinked. "Oh, I…" She let herself look away from the creepy forest in favour of looking at Dipper. "This is gonna sound weird, but… I think I'm seeing things."

The boy smirked. "You're right. That does sound weird."

Pacifica lightly shoved the boy's arm, but he could tell that she was just joking.

"Shut up, dork!" she giggled. "This is serious!"

He smirked. "Okay, okay. What did you see that's so important?"

The girl started fussing with one of her bracelets, as if she was nervous.

"Yesterday, I saw this black… shape. It was hiding behind the trees like it didn't wanna be seen. I don't know, maybe I'm just going crazy." She _was _sharing a room with Mabel after all.

Dipper's eyes involuntarily widened. _Hiding behind_ trees. _The hide behind? Could she have spotted it? _

"Are you sure it wasn't just the shadows of the trees?" he asked nervously.

Pacifica frowned. "Dipper, I know what a shadow is. Shadows don't hide behind trees!"

The boy laughed nervously. That really _did_ sound like the hide behind. Maybe he should do some investigating? He couldn't really do that with the Northwest girl here, though.

He faked shock and pointed into the clearing.

"What's that? The latest teen boyband? Performing right behind you?"

The blonde narrowed her eyes "Right. Sure. You really think I'm that stupid, huh?"

There it was again, that stereotype people always tended to shove her into.

Dipper frowned. "W-what? No, I-"

Not bothering to hear his response, the girl turned around and headed towards the clearing with a sigh. "Whatever, dork. Do whatever you wanna do. I'm going back to the Mystery Shack."

Dipper frowned as he watched her go. He knew that would have worked on his sister, but why not her? And why did she look so offended? He sighed. At least it gave him time alone to investigate the Hide Behind. He could sort things out with her later.

As Pacifica walked back, she sighed. Why was this bothering her so much? It was mostly her fault that people assumed she was just another blonde bimbo, after all. She looked behind her to find that she could no longer see Dipper. Maybe she should go back? Stan wouldn't like it if she came back without finishing the job, after all. Mind made up, she turned completely around and made her way back to where she and Dipper had been. Luckily, all she she had to do to ensure she didn't get lost was to follow their posters.

"Dipper?"

She'd walked far passed the posters now, and there was still no sign of- wait, who was that?

"Well, my guys MAY have seen somethin', but y'know, you ARE a jerk."

Huh? The voice didn't sound like Dipper, but who _else_ would be in the woods? She walked towards where she assumed it was coming from with growing curiosity.

"You kidnapped my sister, man!"

That _was _Dipper's voice. She'd know it anywhere... wait, what?

"C'mon, guys," she heard him continue, the noise getting louder as she got closer. "I need your help. This is important!"

"And so's findin' a queen," the other voice told him, "but you never bothered to help us with THAT!"

Pacifica got closer to the thick tree that the voices seemed to be coming behind and peeked her head around it. Oh look, there was Dipper. And he was talking to...talking to…

"Oh. My. God."

The boy visibly jumped and rubbed his forehead nervously. "P-Pacifica!" He exclaimed. "H-hey! I-it's, um, not what it… looks like...?" His voice trailed off.

The blonde was still in shock. "T-those… those are…"

"Gnomes," Dipper managed to tell her matter-of-factly. "Those are gnomes."

She blinked. "Gnomes. You're having a leisurely chat… with some _gnomes_?!"

The gnome that had been talking to the boy grinned at her and took a step towards her. "Hello pretty lady! So, you up for bein' our gnome queen?"

She glared at it. "You better explain what this is, Pines," she demanded, not even taking her eyes off of the gnome.

Dipper opened his mouth to respond, when he heard a strange hissing noise, almost like a marracca.

"_Sshhhhssshhhhshhh…."_

"BEHIND YOU! IT'S THE THING!"

He spun around just in time to see a tall shadowed figure edging towards him with its' stick-like limbs. Upon realising it had been seen though, it started slinking away back into the forest. Without thinking, Dipper ran after it. He was surprised to see Pacifica doing the same.

"You gonna explain what the heck is going on now?" She asked him. "First there was the weird _golf _people, and then gnomes and now a… what the heck _is_ this thing?"

Dipper panted as he ran. "It's...called the...'Hide...Behind'. Nobody's...seen it...'til now. But... seriously, can't we… do this… later?"

She stared at him, perplexed. "The _Hide Behind_? You have _got_ to be kidding me."

"Hey, I don't…name the…creatures!"

"There's _more? _Why does this weird stuff always happen around you?"

He shoved a few tree branches away before they could whack the girl in the face.

"It's…complicated. You wouldn't- careful, those tree branches hurt- you wouldn't get all this stuff if I told you. Nobody does."

"I had to fight off some talking GOLF BALLS a few weeks ago. I think I can handle it!"

Dipper sighed and carried on running, but they'd hit a dead end and the creature had quite literally vanished. "Darn it!"

"HEY!"

The two turned around to see the gnomes running after them. Oh great.

The leader pointed at them. "Get them and capture our new queen! We're not letting another of them get away!"

Dipper groaned as they leapt towards them, baring their small teeth.

"Don't worry, Pacifica, I've got-"

He was silenced by the sight of Pacifica karate chopping four of the gnomes at once. "You get the ones on the left," she instructed him. "I'll get the ones on the right."

He blinked and she smirked. "What, you think I can't handle myself? My parents had me master karate before I was ten."

Dipper found himself smiling as he worked at whacking the gnomes with a nearby tree branch. It seemed that the blonde was a lot more dependable than he thought.

"Why are they attacking us?" she asked him as she proceeded to kick the little creatures out of the way. "Can I pay them to stop?"

Dipper shook his head as he copied her fighting method. "No, they don't want money. They want a queen, and unfortunately, you're the prettiest girl in the vicinity."

She blushed. "You think I'm pretty?"

His eyes widened. "I...um...hey, watch it!" He punched a fat one in the face before it could hit the blushing girl next to him. "How many have we got left?"

"Most of them are unconscious, including their leader. We could easily get back to the shack now, and they wouldn't be able to follow us."

Dipper nodded and the two made their way back silently. After a few minutes, he finally spoke.

"Hey, um, thanks for your help, Pacifica. I know the Hide Behind got away, but you were pretty cool fighting those gnomes."

She smiled slyly at him. "Thanks. So, I'm _not _a dumb blonde that falls for the 'look behind you' trick?"

He laughed. "No, you're not." His grin dropped as he stared down at the leftover papers in his hand. "Oh, man. Stan is gonna kill us…"

The two groaned and started walking back at a slower pace.

**XXX**

Later that day, the kids were sat in the lounge, watching _Ducktective_. They were all exhausted, so they were glad to finally be able to relax.

"So, how was your day, Gideon?" Dipper asked curiously. He had been wondering how the younger boy had fared with Stan for the entire day. To his surprise, Gideon smirked.

"Stan bet I couldn't con more people than him, but he was wrong. Now he's gotta watch the _Duchess Approves_ marathon when it comes on tomorra."

Mabel giggled and stole one of her brother's crisps. "It was great! Gideon's REALLY good at this!"

The younger boy smiled wider. "Aww, thanks Mabel." She grinned at him back.

"Hey, Pacifica, you want a potato chip?" Dipper offered, holding out his packet for her.

She graciously took one. "Thanks Dippy."

Mabel looked between the two with a smirk of her own. "Dippy?"

The other girl blushed. "Dipper. I meant Dipper. Sorry."

The boy in question smiled back at her. "Hey, Dippy's fine. Beats what nicknames Mabel has for me."

His twin nudged him playfully. "Aww, ya know you love my nicknames, Dipping sauce!"

He rolled his eyes amusedly. "Right."

Gideon looked over at the TV to see the opening credits to _Ducktective_.

"Guys, zip it! It's startin'!"

Not wanting to anger Gideon when he was tired, they all complied and started to watch the bizarre adventures of the crime solving duck.

**XXX**

Stan smirked as he walked into the living room that night after finishing up with the paperwork in his office. The kids had all fallen asleep, but he'd kind of expected that. Dipper and Mabel, as they usually tended to do, were cuddling with each other in their sleep, so he lifted Dipper, then Mabel, up and took them to their separate rooms. He then made his way back to the lounge to deal with the other two. Pacifica, who had been leaning on Dipper, was snoring softly. Stan didn't know which room Pacifica was sleeping in, so he had no choice but to shake her awake. After a few minutes, she finally stirred.

"Wha…? Grun...Grunkle…Stan?" He smirked at what she'd accidentally called him, but said nothing about it.

"You need ta go to your bed, honey. It's three in the morning and I need my rest too."

With a yawn, she nodded and slowly got up. "I can't believe I…fell asleep down...here."

"Well ya know, it happens."

"I guess...fighting off…a mob of gnomes...does that to a person, huh?"

"Uh… yeah. Right."

He raised an eyebrow as he watched her slump sleepily off to bed. He'd have to ask about that tomorrow.

He finally turned his attention to the last child- Gideon. To his surprise, the little brat wasn't actually asleep, though his eyes were very glassy. He appeared to be staring intently at the television.

"Hey, kid?" He waved a hand in front of the boy's face. "Anybody in there?"

He didn't even blink, and Stan was starting to worry. Was he okay?

"Gideon!" He shook him.

"H-huh?" The startled kid's glassy eyes widened, before narrowing angrily. "W-what, old man?"

Stan rolled his eyes. "You're goin' to bed. It's late and I don't even get how you're still up."

Gideon yawned and his eyelids drooped. "But I can't..." he protested weakly. "Gotta… see the… news."

The man frowned. "What? Why?" He looked over at the TV to see that the news was indeed on.

"They said… they said they had news…" his eyes shut, but he force them open again. "News about… my parents. They could… they could be hurt…"

Stan sighed, though he was mentally surprised that the kid even cared.

"The news repeats later. I'll tell you what they say tomorrow, okay?"

The boy, though exhausted, still managed to look surprised. "Y-you would… do that?"

"Sure I would, kid."

"Okay." He hesitated. "I...um… thank ya… Stanford."

"You're welcome, ya little brat."

The child smiled slightly and turned to stagger sleepily out of the door. "G'night."

"Sleep tight, kid. Don't die or I don't get paid."

Despite himself, Gideon let himself smirk and made his way back to his room. It seemed the more he got used to Stan, the more tolerable he was.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey loyal readers! You guys are seriously awesome, you know that? This fic got so many reviews and favourites in the past few weeks. Yay! You guys are the reason I'm still working on this thing, so thank you so much, and welcome to any new readers! :D**

**Lots of crying and hugs in this chapter. I think I have a bit of a problem. XD**

**Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy the new chapter! I'm going on holiday really soon, so I thought I'd update before I left. Remember, I love reviews, so if you feel like making one, go ahead! I love seeing what you all think of this crappy side project of mine! ;)**

**Disclaimer:**** I love fluff too much to own Gravity Falls. The Stan Twins with that angsty backstory, though! O_O**

**Chapter Six**

The next day, Gideon was eating breakfast with the rest of the kids, when he was called into the living room by Stan. The others raised their eyebrows at how quickly he had shot out of his seat. Before they could question it, the youngest boy returned, looking extremely pale.

"Hey, dude," Dipper greeted him as he sat back down again. "What was that all about?"

Gideon didn't respond. He only sat there, a shell-shocked expression on his face. Mabel, worried for him, went to sit on the spare seat next to him. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"You 'kay, Gid?" He looked really upset for some reason. What did Stan say to him?

He looked up at her and his eyes filled with tears. "I-I'm… f-fine." He looked away and she frowned.

"C'mon, shack buddy," she urged gently. "You can tell me."

The boy's lip quivered at the friendly nickname and before he knew what he was doing, was sobbing into her arms.

Dipper raised an eyebrow at her. 'Shack buddy?' he mouthed. Pacifica merely shrugged and Mabel glared at his insensitivity.

"Right. Sorry, man," Dipper apologized, trying to assume for the moment that Gideon wasn't just doing this for attention. "You want some water or something?"

The boy shook his head in Mabel's hold, though he internally appreciated the gesture.

As horrible as the news was, knowing that he had people there for him comforted him a great deal. He couldn't remember ever having that. Mabel's comforting arms around him wasn't bad, either.

"So what's wrong? What did Stan say?" Pacifica couldn't help asking.

Gideon sniffled and buried his head into Mabel's jumper, for the first time acting like the young child that he was.

"T-the n-news… it s-said m-mah… mah h-house was… was… o-on f-fire…"

Mabel gasped. "Are your parents okay?"

He shook his head. "I...I d-don't know…" His voice sounded meek and quiet, which was something new for the boy. He'd never been this upset before.

The phone rang for a few moments and then stopped, but none of the kids bothered to answer it, so they assumed Stan must have. He walked into the kitchen, a smile on his face.

"The little brat's right here," he told the device. "Hold on."

Gideon looked up confusedly and Stan handed the phone to him. Hurriedly wiping away his tears, he put the phone to his fat ear.

"H-hello?" He coughed to compose himself, though his voice was still shaking. "L-Lil' G-Gideon, here."

"_Hey, Gideon! Now, I know ya said not ta bother you, but I thought I'd-" _

The boy gulped. "D-Daddy?" He'd recognise that chipper southern voice anywhere.

"_Yeah, it's me, son. Is...is somethin' wrong?"_

"T-The news...the f-fire…"

"_Ah, that's why I'm callin' ya, suga cube. Your mother and I were out when it happened. Bit o' good luck, huh? Now we're stayin' at a motel 'til they build us another house."_

The father paused. When he did speak again, he was hesitant. "_So, ya might hafta… stay at Stanford's for just… a _teeny _bit longer."_

Gideon blinked away his remaining tears. "Okay, D-Dad."

"_O-Okay? You're not angry?" _

The boy smiled a little. That was his Dad, alright. His parents were fine. They were _safe_.

"L-Look after y-yourself, Dad." He paused and, after thinking about how upset he had been, hesitated at the good bye. "Tell M-Mom I said h-hi. I know we haven't… talked in a w-while." With that, he finally hung up.

As he handed the phone back to Stan, he noticed everyone staring at him in shock.

"What?"

Mabel giggled and grabbed his arm. "Don't mind them. Now let's get'cha the feel better sweater!"

As the two walked out the door, Dipper raised an eyebrow at Pacifica.

"Okay, what just happened?"

She shrugged. "Beats me. I'm still getting over the fact that the kid has feelings."

**XXX**

"Your deal, Gleeful."

"Prepare to lose, Pines!"

After Mabel had let Gideon borrow the 'feel better sweater', Gideon and Dipper had decided on a game of cards to get their minds of what had happened earlier. The girls, meanwhile, were watching the TV. Well, Pacifica was at least.

"Are you suuuuuuuure that since we're sharing a room, we can't-"

The girl groaned and shook her head. "No, Mabel. Just like I said yesterday and the day before, I don't wanna have a sleepover with you."

The brunette's lip quivered. "C'moooooon! It'll be fun!"

"No it won't."

Mabel frowned at her roommate's pessimism, until an idea struck her. She smirked and turned around to the table behind them.

"Hey, Dipping Sauce?"

Her brother looked up from his cards. "Yeah?"

The girl glanced at Pacifica, who suddenly seemed a little more interested in the conversation.

"Can you tell Pacifica to have a sleepover with me?"

The boy laughed. "Mabel, I can't-"

"Pleeeeeease?"

"Mabel, I-"

"PLEEEEEEEEASE?"

"Mabel-"

"DIPPING SAAAAAAUCE!"

He sighed and gave the other girl an apologetic expression.

"I'm sorry, Pacifica, but would you mind? It won't take long… if you're lucky." She didn't respond. "Please? For me? I'm getting a headache."

She nodded dreamily. "Sure…"

The girl had wanted to say no, really she had. She just didn't know what happened. She had been all too ready to decline stubbornly, but then, after she looked into those deep hazelnut eyes…

Oh no.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and Mabel giggled. "I knew that would work. By bedtime, I'll have everything ready, I promise!"

The girl groaned. What had she gotten herself into? As she made her way into the kitchen where Stan was, she could still hear the exclamations of the boys playing cards.

"No fair, man! You cheated!"

"Don't hate the player, Dipper. Hate the game."

"Believe me, I _do_. Want to play another round?"

"Another round ta beat yer on? I'm in!"

She saw Stan smirk, so, assuming he was in a good mood, sat down in the chair next to him.

"Um...hi, Mr Pines."

He looked up from his newspaper. "Oh, hey, kid. How's it goin'?"

She shrugged. "I think I just got roped into a sleepover. Should I be afraid?"

He raised an eyebrow. "It was Mabel that suggested it, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then yeah, you should be."

She groaned and rested her head on the table. "Great."

Stan chuckled. "Ya get used to Mabel after a bit. She's a weird one, but we love 'er for it."

She heard a rustling noise and was tapped on the shoulder. The girl looked up to see Stan with a piece of paper in his hand. "Here. I forgot to tell ya- Wendy got this for you yesterday."

She raised an eyebrow as she accepted the letter into her hands. "Why is it open?"

The man simply looked back at his newspaper. "There was no money in there. I was just, um, _checking_ for ya."

She shook her head with an exasperated sigh. That guy was something else. Opting to ignore the obvious lie, she opened up the envelope and took out the letter. It was handwritten in fancy letters, as she would expect from her parents, or at least, from her parent's _butler_.

_Dear Pacifica,_

_We hope you are doing well in that poor home and that their poor hygiene and bad manners are not contagious. We would not want our only daughter to look like one of them, after all. It would look horrendous for the family image. As for our holiday, we know we left you behind, but as long as you remain an obedient rich daughter that can show the common people their place, then we see no problem. However, if, for some reason, you decided to behave like them while we are away and disgrace the family name, just remember that we will know about it, and that an adoption certificate will be easy to create if such an event should arise. Always remember what we taught you- money and looks are the most important things for a Northwest. They are the things that prove our superiority over others and must not be forgotten. We will see you when we return in a few days time._

_Your parents,_

_Preston and Elise Northwest._

The girl's hands trembled as she read the letter. Being here, she'd somehow completely forgotten about her parents, how they'd completely abandoned her and made her stay with these po- the _Pines family _and Gideon. Most importantly, she'd forgotten what she was going to have to come back home to- hiding who she was for a stupid family image, thinking poorly of everyone, being the best at everything until everyone hated you for it, living a _lie_-

No, she couldn't think like this. She had a few days left before she had to go home, and she was going to savour them. She knew she should have been excited at the prospect of going home, but a large part of her, now knowing what real families were like, felt sick to her stomach at what she would be leaving. She could already hear the sound of bells ringing in her ears.

"You… okay, kid? You're lookin' kinda pale."

The girl jerked her head up, suddenly remembering that the man was still there. She faked a smile. "O-oh, um...yeah. Yeah."

Stan frowned. "Maybe you should go hang out with Mabel. She had a habit of cheering _anyone_ up, that one."

She nodded, and without thinking about it, whispered, "Yes, sir."

As Stan watched her walk away, he couldn't help but wonder what on earth her parents had written to her that had upset her so much. He had no way of knowing, though- she'd already shoved the letter roughly into the pocket of her dress.

**XXX**

For the rest of the day and during dinner, Pacifica was really quiet, to the point that even Gideon found himself asking if she was alright. That was why, as soon as they finished eating, Mabel dragged Pacifica upstairs to initiate the sleepover.

"What… _is_ all this?"

The floor of their shared bedroom was covered in a variety of coloured wools and felt shapes. In short, the floor looked like a wool factory had exploded. Mabel extended her arms at the mess.

"Behold! Our first fun sleepover activity- making sweaters!"

The other girl raised an eyebrow. "You know how to knit?"

Mabel nodded and sat down next to the wool piles. "Sure do!" she patted the space on the floor next to her. "C'mon, it'll be fun!"

With a shrug, Pacifica complied. No matter how badly this ended up, she needed to remember that she was doing this for Dipper, after all. The brunette picked up a ball of purple wool next to her foot and threaded a couple of knitting needles into it.

"The first step to creating a jumper as _amazing _as mine, is to start with a simple knitting pattern. The way I usually do it is to criss-cross the needle thingies and loop them through the gaps in the wool over and over until I get a shape."

Pacifica nodded thoughtfully and picked up a pink ball of wool. Well, she may as well get started.

The two sat there, knitting their own jumpers, for a while, and Pacifica was surprised to find how therapeutic it was. The rhythmic movements of the needles were enough to distract the girl from her troubles for a while, and even she had to admit that her knitting was coming along pretty well. Mabel was surprisingly good at teaching how to do this.

Mabel, seeing the girl calming down, grinned. She figured that would work, and she was glad it did. Cheering people up was what she did best, and when they were cheered up, she could ask them the kind of questions she had been waiting to ask.

"Sooooo…." the brunette started. "Are you and Dipper… WINK WINK?"

Pacifica blushed. "W-what? As in… n-no!" She forced a mocking smile, a smile she could fake well. "Me? Like that dork? No way!"

The other girl giggled. "Aww, well that's a shame, 'cos I coulda told ya some reeeeeeeeally interesting stuff about him if you did."

Pacifica resorted to staring down at her knitting needles. "Like… like what?"

**XXX**

Dipper sighed and covered his ears with his pillow. Those girls wouldn't stop giggling and it was driving him insane.

"Good lordy…" Gideon muttered irritably, doing the same as Dipper with the pillows. "Is ya sister always this loud?"

He nodded. "Pretty much. She always gets like this during sleepovers."

They heard Pacifica burst out laughing and the two boys collectively groaned.

"Honestly, I expect this from darlin' Mabel, but not Pacifica."

"Yeah, but girls are weird, man."

"Agreed. At least she don't look like she's gonna cry anymore, though."

"Yeah, I'm-"

There was another burst of giggles. Dipper groaned again.

"For the love of- you want me to go over there and tell them to keep it down?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. One of mah favourite shows is on soon and I wanna be able to hear it."

**XXX**

Pacifica had no idea that Mabel could be so hilarious. She had just finished telling her about the last time the family had done karaoke and was surprised to hear how much Dipper had apparently gotten into it.

They heard a knock at the door and immediately stopped giggling.

"Hey, can I come in?"

Mabel grinned. "Sure, come right in, Dipping Sauce!"

Pacifica hurriedly hid the jumper she had been working on behind her back and waved casually.

"Hey, Dippy. What's up?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, not hearing his sister giggling quietly to herself. "Could you two keep it down? Us guys can't hear ourselves think."

Mabel stuck her tongue out at him childishly. "Don't be such a square! This is worse than the time you refused to dance the Lam-"

"DON'T say it!" He cut her off abruptly. Nobody needed to know about that dance. It was bad enough that Wendy knew.

Pacifica smirked. "Okay, we'll be quiet." She crossed her arms. "But... what's this dance…?"

The boy pointed sternly at his sister. "You tell her, you're dead to me, you hear me?"

Mabel winked at him. "Don't worry, bro-bro. I won't speak a word about the Lamby Lamby dance."

Dipper scowled as Pacifica burst into a fit of laughter.

"T-the… w-what?" she managed to choke out between her giggles.

The boy frowned mock-sternly at his sister and pointed at the ceiling. "DEAD TO ME!"

With that, he stormed off. As soon as he was gone, Pacifica's laughing died away.

"He doesn't think we were being mean, does he?"

The other girl shook her head. "Naa. He's just bein' a touchy nerd like he always is. Now, how far have got with your sweater?"

**XXX**

Luckily for Gideon, the girls did in fact quieten down, at least a little bit. So, when the time came, he snuck downstairs, just in time for the _Duchess Approves_ marathon to start. As expected, Stan was already seated in his chair.

"Gideon? Oh, lemme guess," the man rolled his eyes. "You're here to make sure I go through with watching this garbage?"

"O-of course." The boy sat down on the floor in front of the TV. "Why else would I be here, old man?"

Stan smirked. In his many years of crime, he'd learnt how to detect lies, and this kid was showing all the signs. Still, he decided to just roll with it.

"Fair enough. Now shut up, kid. It's starting." He paused. "Not that I care. Obviously."

The boy raised his eyebrows, but turned to the TV all the same.

In a matter of hours the two guys were sobbing uncontrollably.

"DUCHESS, NO!"

"SHE WAS SO YOUNG!"

Suddenly, a man with a white beard appeared onto the screen. The two collectively gasped.

"Count Lionel!" Stan exclaimed.

"That no good SCOUNDREL! What's HE doin' here?!"

"The NERVE of that guy!"

That was when Dipper came downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.

"Are you guys alright?" he asked as he stepped into the living room. "What… oh god, you actually _watch _this garbage?"

Stan quickly changed the channel to a wrestling match. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Gideon winced and looked up at Stan desperately. "What are ya _doing_? Don't ya wanna see what the Count wants?!" He paused. "Not that we… um… watch this or anythin', obviously. Stanford's only watching this 'cos he lost that bet yesterday, and I'm here to make sure he sticks to his punishment. Yeah."

Dipper chuckled. "Whatever. Enjoy your movies, ladies."

They scowled at him, but as soon as he was far enough away, Stan changed the channel back to _Duchess Approves_.

Gideon smirked. "Wow, ya really _do _like this show, don't ya?"

Stan gave him a smirk of his own. "Maybe. But so do you."

The boy scoffed. "No I don't!"

"Really? What was it you were shouting a minute ago?" Stan raised an eyebrow and tried to mock the boy's accent. "That _no good scoundrel_?"

Gideon smirked. "Ya realise we're missing it while you talk, right?"

The man paused. "Crud. Okay, whatever kid. Let's just see what Lionel wants."

Gideon smirked and turned his attention back to the TV. Something told him that he was going to enjoy watching this marathon with Stan. It beat watching it alone at home, after all.

"Hey, kid, you want a dorito?"

The boy grinned and took the snack that Stan had handed to him. This was going to be great.

**XXX**

"AAAAAUUUGGHHH!"

Mabel yawned and sat up. The girls had finished making their jumpers a long time ago, and had both fallen asleep. At least, Mabel _had _been asleep before she heard the shouting. Her roommate seemed to be having some kind of nightmare.

"N-no… no… not the...not the bells…"

The girl frowned. Bells?

"NO! NOOOO! I DON'T WANT TO! PLEASE STOOOOOP!"

Mabel didn't like this. Despite how mean Pacifica used to be, she'd been a lot less mean since feeding Waddles pork, and they'd actually had fun making those jumpers. She didn't like seeing her in this state. The girl got out of bed and shook Pacifica gently, who screamed and sat up.

"Girl, chill. It's just me! Mabel!"

The blonde panted and looked up at the brunette with tear filled eyes. "M-Mabel?"

She nodded and sat next to the girl on the bed. "Yeah. No bells here, I promise!"

Pacifica shuddered, and Mabel squeezed the blonde into a hug. To Mabel's surprise, Pacifica actually hugged her back and squeezed her eyes shut.

"T-the bells… t-they… they won't...won't stop…"

The brunette frowned. Pacifica had started sobbing.

"H-hey, hey, it's okay," she told her, trying to be reassuring. "There aren't any bells. You're safe."

The girl whimpered, and seemed to just cling onto the other girl tighter. "T-they were… they were e-everywhere...r-ringing...mak-making me… d-do things…"

Mabel frowned and sat herself on the edge of the girl's bed. She grabbed her by the shoulders sternly. "Okay, girl, what's up?" She puffed her cheeks out comically. "Why you ackin' so cray cray?"

The blonde couldn't quite manage a laugh, as much as she wanted to. Seeing Mabel's kind smile though, she tried to wipe away her tears with her hand. She stared down at the floor.

"I-I'm… s-sorry for-for...w-waking you u-up…"

Seeing the sadness in the other girl's eyes, Mabel grabbed her hands reassuringly.

"Aww, don't worry 'bout THAT, Paccy!" She paused and then, more seriously, continued, "talking about nightmares help, ya know. What was it, a bell monster or something?"

Pacifica sighed. "You wouldn't… you wouldn't understand. It's c-complicated."

Mabel smirked. "I've fought evil gnomes that want me as their _queen. _Nothing is as complicated as that! Trust me on this."

The blonde let out a small smile. "Yeah, those gnomes really are annoying, aren't they?"

The other girl's eyes widened. "Wait, you've SEEN the- wait. Wait. Wait. You are NOT changing the subject on me. Nope."

Pacifica sighed again. There was clearly no getting out of this, so she may as well tell the girl. It's not like Mabel was likely to use the information against her or anything.

"My parents… they're kind of…" She tried to think of the right word, "...controlling. Everytime they want me to do something, they ring this _stupid _bell and I always do what they want. Always."

"Why?"

"You think being a Northwest is easy or something?"

"Well, you _are _rich, dummy."

"That's not the point. Yeah, I'm rich, but I have to use that money to show off to people to please my parents. It's all about that _dumb_ Northwest image."

Mabel gasped. "THAT'S why you're usually such a jerk!"

Pacifica ignored the comment in favour of continuing her train of thought. "But I got that letter from my parents today, about how I still have that family image to protect while they're gone and I guess it… I guess it bugged me. For a while, I'd forgotten the image even existed."

Why was she telling Mabel all this? They weren't even that friendly with each other, and yet… she felt like she could tell the girl anything. Is this what it was like to talk to someone trustworthy?

Mabel tightened her grip on the other girl's hands. "Well your parents are butt faces."

Pacifica blinked. "Huh?"

"You're your own person, Paccy," the other girl told her, in a tone that was surprisingly serious for the girl. "You shouldn't act differently just to please your parents. I mean, I'm not dragged down by my parents, and look at me! I'm awesome!"

Pacifica smirked and Mabel continued. "If they really care about you, they'll let ya be who you want." She paused. "And if they don't… well, what they don't know can't hurt 'em, right?"

The blonde frowned. "You realise that when I go home, I'll have to go back to being an, um, _jerk_ to everyone, right?"

The other girl shrugged. "I'm your friend either way, Paccy. I know what you're really like, even if nobody else does!"

Pacifica let herself smile, again ignoring the fact that she should be scolding Mabel for calling her that affectionate nickname.

"Besides," the girl continued, "you can always come visit us. Nobody has to know that you're secretly friends with a couple of commoners!"

Pacifica had to admit, she _really _liked that idea. She wasn't sure if she'd actually be able to pull it off, but she could always try. Her eyes lit up.

"Hey, I just got an idea!"

Mabel gave her a wide grin. "Yeah? Spill it, Paccy!"

She suddenly looked a little ashamed. "You know that, um, karaoke competition? That I won?"

"Yeah?" She giggled. "That was so much fun!"

"It was? But… but you lost."

"So? I had WAY too much fun doing it to care how good I did, anyway! We were both awesome!"

Pacifica grinned. "Great, because I was thinking we could convince Stan to let us have another one with just us before Gideon and I have to go home."

There was that braced grin again. "Oh, heck yeah!" The grin morphed into a cheeky smirk. "Leave it all to Mabel. I've got this."

Before she even knew what she was doing, Pacifica tackled the other girl into a hug.

"T-thank you, Mabel. For… for everything."

Mabel grinned and hugged her back again. "Hey, just bein' me! 'sides, cheering each other up is what friends do, right?"

The other girl beamed. "Yeah," she yawned. "Friends." She let go of the other girl to look at the time on the clock beside her. "3:50? Yikes. We'd better get some sleep."

The Pines twin nodded. "Yeah, probably." Her expression became concerned. "Are you gonna get back to sleep okay?"

She nodded hesitantly and snuggled back into her covers. "I… think so."

Mabel got back into her own bed, and cuddled up with Waddles again. As she shut her eyes, she whispered sleepily, "If you get scared, just… think of... Dipper ... or somethin'..."

The girl shut her own eyes. She tried not to, she really did, but now she really couldn't get Dipper out of her mind. Still, it was better than thinking about that horrible bell. That thought in mind, the girl drifted off into unconsciousness, the image of her crush's cute smile lulling her to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi again, guys! Here's the latest chapter- again, sorry for the wait. I was on holiday and then all my writing motivation left me, but it's okay. I won't give up. This story WILL be completed. I know how much you guys are enjoying it and I don't want to let any of you down. Now, before I get to the disclaimer and the story, I figured I'd get something out there:**

**As much as I'd like to, I CAN'T upload a new chapter ever single day.**** I know you guys have been asking for me to for a while and really want me to, but the thing is, each chapter is written with care and given an**_** insane**_** amount of editing and re-writing before publishing. If I uploaded everyday, you'd end up getting a bunch of crappy, rushed chapters with a ton of spelling errors. I'm going for quality, not quantity, here folks. Besides, life can tend to get in the way quite a bit too. That's why these chapters are taking so long. I'm doing this for you guys. I want you to enjoy what I write as much as possible and I really want to honour one of my favourite shows in the process. I hope you all understand. :)**

**Now, with that long (but important!) stuff out of the way, please enjoy the chapter! :D**

_**Disclaimer:**_** Gravity Falls, like many other awesome official shows, is not something I own. Why must the disclaimers keep reminding me?**** I need to get me an infinity sided die. Bet that would fix that! :D**

**Chapter 7**

"Hey, Pacifica, could you pass me that box of bobbleheads?"

"Yes, sir." She handed him the box obediently and Stan smirked at Dipper.

"See, Dipper? Why can't you be more like her? She don't moan every time I ask her to do somethin'."

Dipper scowled and the girl shrugged. "It's just a box, Mr Pines."

"Maybe, but it's nice having someone like you around, kid."

The girl beamed, before it quickly turned into a frown. She was used to being complemented by people that were jealous of her and her money, but this was different. Stan wasn't just complimenting her on something she had actually done. He was _thanking _her for it. Nobody ever thanked her for anything, least of all her parents. She busied herself with sorting out the shelf in front of her. Stan didn't seem to notice, though.

"Nice ta know _someone's_ doing their job around here. Keep that up, and ya might be able to get rid of Dipper quicker."

"I honestly don't mind, Mr Pines."

He shrugged. "Well anyway, good work, Pacifica. Now, I'm gonna go see how Wendy's doin'. Probably slackin' off again, as usual."

True to his word, Stan, after giving his nephew an affectionate pat on the head, made his way over to the lazy cashier girl. Dipper grinned at the rich girl.

"Hey, he _actually_ bothered to remember your name. I'd say you're making progress."

She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Yeah, I guess."

He frowned. "Hey, are you… okay?"

"Yeah," she assured him stiffly. "Yeah. Great, in fact." Thinking it best to change the subject, the girl smirked at him. "So, you going to explain those gnomes to me now?"

Taking the bait, Dipper laughed nervously, making him look even more awkward and sweaty than usual.

"W-what about them? They're just these little guys in hats…"

Her eyebrow lowered. "You knew them a bit _too_ well," she planted her hands on her hips. "and don't even get me _started_ on how this weird stuff always happens around you."

"Y-you d-don't know what you're t-talking about, Pacifica."

"I'm no expert, Pines, but I'd say that you and Mabel are the only kids this stuff happens to."

Dipper nervously felt the inside of his vest where the journal was hidden. Could he really tell her about this? No, there was no way he could do that. The journal told him to trust _NO-ONE. _That included her. It wouldn't be smart.

Seeing the conflicted look in the boy's eyes, Pacifica put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon Dippy, you can tell me," she gave him a kind smile.

"I...I dunno…" His resolve was dropping as he looked into those warm crystal eyes. They _were _friends now, he supposed, and she _was _really nice…

"I won't tell anyone, I promise," she continued. "Please? I was _born _here. I wanna know what's going on."

He paused and took the journal out from its' hiding place. "Well… alright, but you better keep this to yourself."

She nodded and he opened the first page of the journal out for her.

"I found this journal out in the woods," he began. "Stan asked me to hang some signs out there, and I accidentally found it, hidden deep inside the ground."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "What, seriously?"

"Weird, right?" He flipped through several pages. "It was written by this unknown author about all the mysteries of Gravity Falls." He began to get excited. "It has all these codes and cryptic messages everywhere, usually about the monsters and mythical creatures that inhabit Gravity Falls. But then halfway through, the author just stopped writing and I dunno why, but it's so freaky and it'd be SO awesome to figure out what happened to him, you know? I could discover something MAJOR!"

Pacifica tried not to giggle at how adorable her friend was when he was excited. She'd never seen him like this before. The whole thing did intrigue her, though. If it wasn't for the journal right in front of her, she'd probably have accused him of making the entire thing up.

"Wait- hold on a sec," she frowned at the pages in front of her. "Go back a few pages." He did as he was told, and she pointed at the top corner of the page. It seemed he had stopped at the page about the Hide Behind. "Look!" she exclaimed excitedly. "It's a code thing!"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, the book is full of 'em, but this code is really hard to crack, so you probably won't be able to decipher it. After all, it's not exactly in English."

Her eyes narrowed and she sighed exasperatedly. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Assuming I'm stupid. I've had some of the best tutors money could buy, you know." She started counting on her fingers. "I know what the figures of Pi are, I have Shakespeare's plays memorised word for word, and if you asked me to cook a creme brulee, yeah, I could probably do that too!"

The boy rubbed his neck apologetically. "I wasn't saying tha-" He paused as he took in what she had said. "Wait, _really_? That's...that's impressive."

She nodded. "Yeah. My parents don't let me brag about it, but I'm not just a pretty face, Pines."

The boy nodded, a bit too aggressively. "I-I know that! A-all I'm saying, is that decoding this stuff can be k-kinda hard! I d-don't even know what c-code to use for t-that one!"

She smirked. "Good job I'm here then, isn't it?" She studied the text for a few minutes. "That one looks oddly famil- oh, wait." The girl looked back at Dipper, recognition shining in her eyes. "That's a basic Caesar cipher. It shouldn't be too hard to crack if you know how."

His eyes widened. "A Caesar cipher! Of COURSE! And here I thought it was Atbash! No wonder it made no sense!" The boy grinned and snapped his fingers. "Right, I've got this. This code'll be cracked in no time!"

The blonde laughed at her friend's enthusiasm and made her way over to the other side of the room. As adorable as Dipper was, she still had a job to do while she stayed there. She didn't want Stan mad at her, after all.

Sweeping at the floor with her broom, she started humming a little tune. She was surprised to hear Gideon joining her as he shelved items nearby. She smirked at him.

"Someone's cheerful today."

The younger boy smirked. "What? Aren't I allowed to have a good day or somethin'?" He carefully placed a Stan bobblehead onto a shelf. He seemed to be organising them all into neat rows. " 'sides," he continued, "you're lookin' pretty chipper today yourself."

With her own smirk, Pacifica ignored him and continued to hum the tune in her head. It was a hopeful, yet quiet tune that seemed to be mirroring her own feelings. Mostly, she was just enjoying herself, though. Gideon, meanwhile, continued with his own upbeat tune. Somehow, both tunes seemed to blend perfectly together, as if they were part of their own song.

"Oooh, that sound greeeat!" Mabel grinned, approaching them. "Can I have a go?"

The blonde nodded with a genuine smile as she continued to hum, accompanied by Gideon.

They almost broke their tunes with giggles when they heard Mabel's addition to the song- beatboxing. Oddly enough though, the beatboxing still kind of fit.

Hearing the ruckus, Dipper looked up from his book ciphering. Huh? What the heck…?

"I...uh, do I even want to ask about this?" The others ignored him and continued to play their a cappella song, making Dipper groan and put a hand to his forehead. "Ugh, please don't make me ask about this."

Mabel aggressively beatboxed into her brother's face.

"Eww Mabel! Don't- eww- _spit _on me!"

This proved too much for the trio of accidental musicians, and they each burst out laughing. Stan frowned at the sight of the three pre-teens collapsed onto the floor of the gift shop as he approached.

"I leave you lot unattended for…what, _ten minutes_?" He stared incredulously at the only child not laughing. "Okay, Dipper, you wanna explain to me what the heck this is?"

The boy only shrugged. "Hey, your guess is as good as mine, Grunkle Stan."

Stan shook his head as he observed the pre-teens, of whom were still in stitches on the floor.

"Wow. Just… just _wow_." Feeling the need to sort this out quickly, before a customer came in and thought this was some sort of mental asylum, he crossed his arms. "Right," he said, with an authoritative tone, "if you lot don't get back to work _right now_, I'm gonna make all of you give Waddles a bath, no excuses. This ain't a youth club I'm runnin' here."

Dipper frowned. "But Waddles doesn't like getting washed."

"Exactly."

Almost like they had heard a gunshot, the three of them shot up from the floor and promptly got back to the jobs they had been working on previously. Stan nodded with satisfaction. They still had wide grins on their faces, but at least they were working again.

Dipper looked at his great uncle and gestured to the other pre-teens.

"Now do you see what I have to put up with?"

"Dipper! How can you say that?!"

Not needing to hear the rest of the protests the kids were giving the male Pines twin, Stan made his way to his office, trying hard to keep down his own laughter.

"Dipper, what th' heck am I watching?"

After the pre-teens had finished for the day, the first thing Dipper had done was drag Gideon to the living room. To say that the ten year old was confused at the twin's actions was a major understatement.

Dipper tried to choke down a laugh. Gideon had no idea what he was in for.

"I-it's, um, j-just a… m-movie! That I, uh, t-think you might, l-like."

The younger boy raised an eyebrow at his roommate, of whom was sat next to him in front of the TV.

"Why don't I believe you?"

Dipper's lips twitched, but, not thinking it wise to actually open his mouth, merely shrugged. Gideon rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the TV.

"_But Maaaandy," _whined the voice of a man with beady little eyes. "_I'm a nice guuuuy!"_

The woman, clearly not agreeing, glared at him and started backing away.

"_You killed my brother!" _She exclaimed.

"_But he was getting in the way of our relationship!"_

"_Get AWAY from me!"_

Gideon chose to stare at the television blankly for a few seconds, before turning back to Dipper again, a cynical eyebrow raised. "You...oh mah god."

"W-what?" the male twin giggled. "You m-making some kinda… c-connection here?"

Gideon rolled his eyes. "Wow, you're hilarious. Look, I'm not _that _bad!"

"Really? How exactly are you supposed to be different?"

The blonde sunk back into the chair and glowered at the floor.

"For one thing," he muttered icily, "you're not dead. _Yet_."

"Oooh ouch." Dipper pretended to wince and let out another laugh. "Don't worry, dude, I'm just messing with you. We're just waiting for what's on after this." He held up the TV magazine and pointed to the page that had been circled. "You know that cheesy musical, _Shampoo_? That's on next. Figured you might want to watch it."

Truthfully, over the course of the week, Dipper had been surprised to find out just how _bearable _the young con-artist could be. He'd expected him to be a total nightmare to share a room with, but in actuality, Gideon was really tidy and he didn't even snore. He could even have a civilised conversation with him now, which was a miracle in and of itself. Part of him still resented the boy for trying to kill them and for upsetting Mabel, but if his sister could get past that, so could he, he supposed.

"Hey, Dipper?"

"Hmm?" The brunette was pulled out of his thoughts. "Yeah?"

"I was just thinkin' 'bout...I don't…" he sighed. "I guess I wanna know what I did wrong."

Dipper blinked. "Huh? Wrong? When…?" He noticed how nervous and fidgety the boy suddenly looked.

"Ya know, with…" he paused and shook his head. "Naw, f'rget it. Ya wouldn't understand."

Now the boy was interested. "C'mon, you don't know that. What is it?"

Gideon started fiddling with his white tie. "M-mabel. Why… did she break up with m-me? I wanna know the truth."

Despite how upset the younger boy clearly was, Dipper couldn't withhold the deadpan expression on his face. "You did try to kill me," he told him matter-of-factly.

Gideon rubbed his fat neck awkwardly. "Oh, uh, r-right. I am, um, sorry 'bout that, yah know..."

"I know. Water under the bridge, man," Dipper shrugged. "Though you should know, she was going to break up with you way before that. It just took her a while to finally tell you."

"But why? Didn't I give her enough attention? Were the dates not expensive enough? I don't-"

"Woah, woah!" Dipper exclaimed, holding a hand out in a 'halt' motion. "Look, Mabel didn't care about any of that. She never even wanted to go out with you."

Gideon found himself glaring at the floor. "Then what the heck did she say yes for?"

Dipper sighed. "She didn't. At least, not really. All Mabel wanted was to be your friend, and I don't think she felt about you in any other way than that. She told me she kept trying to say no, but she was worried about upsetting you."

The young psychic slumped into the chair, a dejected look on his face. He sighed. "Great. My first proper friend, and I totally screw it up. Nice goin', Gleeful."

Admittedly, Dipper felt kind of bad for the younger boy. He couldn't just let the kid beat himself up about this, even if it _was _Gideon. "I wouldn't say you've messed up too badly," he told him.

"What?"

"I think Mabel _does _still want to be your friend. I think she's just worried you're going to go all evil on us again."

Gideon studied the brunette's face. He didn't look like he was making that up to make him feel better, which, he had to admit, he liked.

"You're alright, Pines," he told him. "I might 'ave been… _kinda_ wrong about you."

Before he could stop it, a large smile stretched itself across Dipper's face, though he did manage a mocking gasp.

"What's this? THE Gideon Gleeful? Complimenting ME?"

"Oh, shut yer yap," he smirked back with an eyeroll. "Ya carry on like that, and it won't happen that often."

"That, I can live with. At least you're not a jerk anymore."

Gideon's smirk fell and he narrowed his eyes, turning his attention back to the television. It was still playing the stalker movie that he had begun to hate so much.

"I'm not a jerk, Dipper," he told him quietly. "I never was. All I ever did was stick up for myself."

Dipper frowned at the boy's sudden change in demeanor. "What are you talking about?"

"Ah've been pushed 'round all my life," he admitted, subconsciously feeling the top of his hair. "Folks used t' make fun of me due to mah hair and how I care 'bout my appearance. The fact that I'm a bit… vertically challenged… didn't help neither." It took Dipper a minute to realise that he was trying to imply, and when he did figure it out, the challenge of not laughing was almost too great. He held it in, though. "Eventually, I got fed up of takin' it all and decided that if they weren't gonna treat me with respect, I'd make 'em."

The brunette opened his mouth to speak, but Gideon was still talking. "Now, people respect me, but… it also means I never had any friends. Your sister was the closest thing I had to one."

"Maybe you'd have more if you weren't so rude to everyone, but I get your point." Dipper sighed. "If it's any consolation, I'm not that lucky with friends either. Before coming to Gravity Falls, I was bullied all the time for being a 'nerd.' My closest friend was my sister, but you know _her_. She was friends with almost everybody." He fiddled with the brim of his hat. "I usually preferred to keep to myself, so to everyone else, I was just 'the other twin'. Kinda sucked, but hey, at least I wasn't constantly sleep deprived back then, so I had that going for me."

Gideon offered the boy a small smile. "Looks like we both could use a friend, huh?" He paused. "Wait, why are ya sleep deprived? Oh gawd, I don't snore do I?"

Dipper chuckled. "No, no. It's not really to do with you." He bit his lip. "It doesn't matter. Forget I said anything."

Gideon frowned. "Oh no you don't. I told ya _my _deep dark secret. You can at least tell me yours."

"I… you've got to promise you won't tell anyone, okay? Or laugh at me."

"I dunno 'bout that. Could be pretty hilarious," Gideon joked. His smirk dropped when he saw the look on Dipper's face. He looked deadly serious all of a sudden. Whatever he didn't want to say was clearly important. "Okay," he said after a pause. "You have mah word."

Dipper nodded and pulled his hat down over his eyes, almost ashamedly. "I… k-keep having these...n-nightmares." He paused to look at Gideon's reaction. Thankfully, the boy didn't look like he was about to laugh. If anything, he actually looked concerned, so Dipper continued. "They're usually...about B-Bill."

The ten year old shuddered. He'd had nightmares not long after meeting Bill too. There was just something about the creature that was so _creepy_. Just hearing him talk had a habit of putting you on edge.

"He's terrifying, I know," Gideon told him grimly. "For a while, I even had nightmares 'bout him myself."

"R-really?"

He nodded. "Yup. How couldn't I?" He rolled his eyes with a smirk. "But ya know what? He's just a flying dorito at the end of the day. He can't even touch us in the real world."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Dipper managed to smile. "You know, it's really weird knowing someone that gets all this stuff. But, like, weird in a good way."

"Yeah, it is."

The television buzzed loudly.

"_COMING UP NEXT IS THE AWARD WINNING MUSICAL, __**SHAMPOO**__!" _

Grin getting wider, the boy sat up in his seat, apparently looking pretty enthusiastic about watching the cheesy movie. Seeing this as his cue to leave, Dipper said his goodbyes and left the room, just in time to hear the first song of the movie start. It wasn't that he didn't like the movie, but he knew that if he heard any of the songs come on, he'd practically be guaranteed to sing along, and he knew that not even a reformed Gideon would let that one go.

"Go fish!"

"Mabel, darlin', ya can't just keep yellin' 'go fish' and hope it'll make ya win."

"He's got a point."

"Shut up."

The girls, Gideon and Stan were having another game of cards that night. Dipper was upstairs, claiming he had 'some reading to do'. The sky was turning a deep orange as they played, and not a single sound could be heard coming from the outside. Overall, everything felt totally normal.

This had been Pacifica's first clue that something wasn't right.

"_Tssssssss...tttssssss...tssstttsssss…"_

Pacifica spun her head around quickly. She could hear something by the window. It sounded...an awful lot like something supernatural. Either that, or there was a bird nearby shaking a maraca. She opted to ignore it for now, though. It was probably nothing.

"Hey, Paccy? It's your turn."

"Huh?" The blonde looked up. "Oh, s-sorry. Um...I've got…" She tried to check her cards, but it was getting harder and harder to focus when she could still hear that noise. It just seemed to be getting louder.

"Hurry it up, kid," Stan grumbled. "We don't got all day…" He paused. "Well we _do_, but I don't wanna spend all day doin' this."

"I..."

"_Raaaattttaaaaaa...tssssssssaaaaaa…."_

"I'm just trying-"

"_TTTSSSSSSTTTT…TATATATATATAAAAAAAA…"_

"AUGHH!" She screamed, grabbing her hair in frustration. "Can none of you HEAR THAT?!"

They all exchanged worried looks.

Mabel put down her cards. "Are you...okay, Paccy?"

"I'm fine, but can you hear that?"

Gideon rubbed his fat neck. "I don't hear anythin', Pacifica. You sure you're feelin' right?"

"I SAID I'm FINE! I can't be the only one hearing this!"

Stan put his own cards down and crossed his arms. He looked the hysterical girl in the eyes.

"None of us can hear anything. Maybe you should get some sleep, honey."

She stood up from her seat and forced herself to stay calm. That noise really was driving her insane. "I'm...I'm going to see Dipper."

Dipper looked up as his bedroom door was angrily shoved open.

"Pacifica?" She looked calm, but also very rigid and stiff. Something was definitely up. He put the journal to one side. "Are you okay?"

She winced and tightened her balled up fists. "Dipper," she started, in an angry, controlled voice. "There's this..._annoying_ thing outside, making this..._annoying_ noise and it's..._really annoying!_"

Dipper raised an eyebrow and stood up to look her in the eyes. "I...get that." He put a hand onto one of her tense shoulders. "But you need to calm down. What did this thing sound like?"

"Like...hissing, but...but with bass. It sounded kinda like a maraca." Noticing Dipper's blank facial expression, she continued. "You know," she tried. "Like...hisssssss! ttttthhhhssss! It's super annoying!"

The boy thought for a moment. "Well...what did the others say? They were all sat with you, right?"

She sighed and stared defeatedly at the floor. "Yeah, but none of them could hear it. I was closest to the window though, so that might be why." She looked back up at Dipper desperately. "Am I going crazy?"

He smirked. "I ask myself that everyday." He picked up his trusty journal. "Okay, so you heard it outside the shack, right? Let's go check it out."


End file.
